


Incendio

by supersandluthors



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/F, I just really love these adorable dorks, Sara Lance is the worlds best bro, the slowest of slow burns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-09-06 21:14:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8769562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersandluthors/pseuds/supersandluthors
Summary: "It's crazy, I've been at Hogwarts for six years and the most magic I have ever felt are the moments I've spent with you"aka the harry potter au that has been rolling around in my head for far too long





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl or Harry Potter

Lena stood stoic as she watched the families around her exchange tearful good-byes and heartfelt hugs as children excitedly boarded the Hogwarts express for the first time. She glanced to her left as Roberta the house maid of Luthor manor struggled to hold onto all of her bags, Lena sighed and grabbed the trunks from the woman.

“Thank you Roberta, I’ve got it from here,” she said with a wry smile. She wouldn’t make Roberta suffer through the thick crowds and chaos of boarding the train, how could she expect her to when her own parents couldn’t even find the time to see their only daughter off?

Lillian and Lionel were very busy very influential people with far bigger things to worry about than sending their youngest child off to school. Lena was fairly certain that her father had some sort of dinner scheduled with the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation as well as a few members of the Wizengamot. She imagined if she were home at this moment, her mother would be fussing at her to get ready while she would send for the house elf to rid her evening dress of any creases. The yelling would eventually fade as her mother descended down the stairs leaving Lena’s room quiet and still, not much unlike a museum.

Lena felt a hand on her shoulder quietly shaking her out of her reverie as Roberta tried to take a few items out of Lena’s arms as they began making their way to the luggage car. Lena hesitated momentarily before accepting the help, albeit begrudgingly.

Roberta smiled down at the littlest Luthor, “it’s no trouble of mine Miss Lena,” she said warmly, “it’s not every day that a girl gets to board the Hogwarts train for the first time after all.” Lena nodded and shared a hint of a genuine smile with the housekeeper, one that almost reached the corners of her eyes giving way to the slightest of crinkles.

Roberta laughed and helped the dark haired girl load her bags into the luggage carriage. Lena watched as a loud group of older boys boarded the train in front of her, most of them were already dressed in their robes. One of them turned and she noticed the green and silver house crest embroidered onto his shoulder, he gave her a smirk and motioned for the rest of his friends and nodded in Lena’s general direction. She swallowed inaudibly, trying her hardest not to give any sort of emotion away in her facial features as the boys continued to look at her and talk softly amongst each other.

She turned back to Roberta who was looking in the direction of the boys as well eyeing them warily.

“Don’t let anyone get the better of you Miss Lena,” she said softly looking down into Lena’s eyes with an intensity that Lena couldn’t recall ever seeing before in all her years of knowing Roberta. “Be your own person.”

Lena gave Roberta a quick hug, imagining desperately that it was her mother or father tearfully holding onto her and wishing her luck on her new adventure. She grabbed her carry on and made her way into an empty carriage.    

The dark haired girl sat next to the window and watched people pass by her through the window while she pretended to be reading a book. She watched as some people stopped to do a double take, others talked nervously, pointing Lena out to their friends. Lena put on her best emotionless face, the one that she had been taught from a young age. She could hear the echo of her father's words in her mind, “We’re Luthors,” he would remind her with a cool gaze and a brief forced smile, “we have an image to maintain.”

The train’s whistle started to blow and eventually everyone settled into their seats, no one opted to sit by the dark haired girl reading through her transfiguration textbook. _At least no one is staring anymore_ she thought ruefully as she set down her book and took to staring out the window. The train sped past the outskirts of busy cities and through the hillsides of quaint sleepy villages and Lena was in awe of the landscapes whizzing by. Lena had never been allowed on many outings that did not hold a specific purpose, most of the time that purpose was to benefit her parent's political careers. She was so enthralled by the beauty of the world she never got to see that she missed the opening of the door to her compartment.

Lena turned back around and was startled to see one of the older boys from earlier standing in front of her with a wicked grin on his face.

“I didn’t know we were getting a new Luthor,” he sneered jeeringly, his snarl of a smile showing off extraordinarily white teeth.

Lena said nothing as she waited for the boy to continue because if she had learned anything in life, it was that boys always had a lot to say.

“My name is Max,” he said haughtily, “Max Lord. I was a good friend of your brother.”

Lena stiffened at the mention of Lex, Lex the only one who had ever felt like family, Lex the one who had taught her how to fly, Lex who had introduced her to the grandeurs of magic, Lex who was now rotting in Azkaban. Lex who left her alone in that empty house, left her with the shattered remains of a hope that she clung to that she could be someone who was worthy of belonging. Worthy of love.

 Max could obviously sense the change in the air, his eyes widened and his smile grew larger and more unsettling. This guy was really starting to get under her skin.

“No need to get testy little Luthor, I’m here to say that I’m excited to see your ascension to power over this flea ridden place, that is assuming you are as capable as your brother I suppose. The whole school as well as its questionable administration has gone to the dogs ever since well, you know,” he shifted his arms to fold over his chest as he searched Lena for her reaction.

“You mean ever since they arrested my brother for terrorism and murder?” she asked coolly, never breaking eye contact as Max’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. He chuckled at her rigid posture and the fire burning in her eyes as she dared him to challenge her.

“Your brother,” he said lowly, stalking toward the dark haired girl, “was fighting for the greater good.”

Lena raised an eyebrow and continued to stare him down. “My brother,” she said lowly, threateningly, “will be nothing compared to me.”

Max’s posture relaxed and the sleazy grin returned to his face, “well then,” he said menacingly, “pleased to make your acquaintance, your highness.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so what you're saying is that I don't need to know how to ride a dragon?

Lena held her breath nervously as she shuffled through the ginormous doors of the great hall with the rest of the first years. She stared wide eyed at the candles floating high above the four long wooden tables where the older students sat anxious to get sorting over and start the actual feasting part of the feast. 

She followed dutifully behind the girl that had introduced herself as “Lane, Lucy” when they were being placed in alphabetical order. Lena wondered what their names had to do with the sorting process; Lex had always acted as if it was some sort of huge secret. He even went as far as to tell her the only hint he could give her was to read up on how to ride dragons. Lena gripped her wand tightly as the line stopped in front of an old weathered looking hat with a rip in its brim sitting atop a bar stool.

To Lena and everyone else’s surprise, the hat began to sing.

Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

Lena cocked an eyebrow and the ludicrousness that was happening in front of her. Did they really expect her to put that thing on her head to invade all of her personal thoughts? she eyed her classmates around her who all looked equally as confused. 

“Allen, Barry!” was the first name called to the front by the intimidating witch that had previously identified herself as professor McGonagall.

The sorting hat didn’t take very long before letting out a roaring “GRYFFINDOR!”

The Gryffindor table let out a loud rowdy cheer and patted the lanky kid on the back as he sat down with his house.

The rest of the sorting happened in a blur of names and loud bouts of applause, Lena was so busy trying to keep her nerves in check that she hadn’t realized how close she was to being next. Lance Sara was sorted into Gryffindor after a grueling few minutes of silence as the hat decided where to place her and Lane Lucy was placed into Ravenclaw almost immediately after the hat touched her head.

“Luthor Lena!” rang through a now silent hall. Murmurs started floating up through the silence, “Luthor?” “Like THE Luthors?” “Is she even allowed to be here?” “Looks like they didn’t learn their lesson after the last Luthor.”

Lena’s knees shook as she made her way up to the stool she clambered up to the seat and sat stoically while professor McGonagall placed the battered hat on top of her head.

The hat was silent for a few seconds, making the Luthor’s heart speed up in her chest, _what if the hat doesn’t even want me here_ she thought morosely _what if it just doesn’t sort me and they have to send me home?_

Lena was about to take the hat off her head herself when she heard a raspy voice tickling at the back of her mind.

“Ah yes, little Lena Luthor, I was wondering when I’d be seeing you.” Lena gulped as the hat shifted on top of her head sliding lower over her ears. “Mind if I pick your brain?” the hat laughed gleefully as memories began to flash before the dark haired girl’s eyes.

She could see her mother yelling at her, telling her to try harder at everything she did, her piano lessons, her socialization skills, she couldn't seem to do anything right. She wasn't a true Luthor and mother never let her forget it. She hung her head in shame as she saw the remnants of her mother's favorite vase in pieces on the ground. "It was an accident!" she sobbed, "please mommy I'm so sorry." Her mother looked on her with disgust as she called the house elf to take care of the mess, “if only you were more like your brother” rang through her mind as the memories shifted and changed.

Now she could see herself with Lex as he told her stories of his adventures at his new school, she was in awe of his wand and books of spells and all of the stories of a magic castle that catered to your very need; it was like something out of a fairy tale. She could see Lex teaching her how to ride his new broom and felt her heart soar as they raced around the yard, feet barely skimming the tops of the blades of grass beneath them.

She saw the front door of her home being kicked in and she felt the air in her lungs become trapped as her brother grabbed her by the neck with his wand pointed at her head.

“I WILL KILL HER!” buzzed in her skull like a shock to her system, she felt the terror in her gut as the aurors surrounded them and pointed their wands at him, not seeming to care if they had to go through her first. She tried to scream, to call out to them “Please don’t hurt him!” she wanted to cry, “Please don’t kill my brother!” but the screams were stuck in her lungs and the only sound she could hear herself make was choking.

“I will make sure that you rot in Hell you deplorable bastard,” she turned to see Clark Kent, Clark who used to come over for dinner and holidays and Clark who had been like a brother to her as well. Clark who was now pointing his wand directly at Lena’s chest as it huffed and struggled to obtain air.  Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she saw the look of disgust that marred Clark’s features.

Lena could see the flashes of light dance on the back of her eyes as she was now staring out her window from home, watching the neighbors play outside and wishing more than anything that being a Luthor meant being able to be happy.

The hats voice returned to her head almost menacingly “what to do with you, what to do with you indeed,” it sang softly as Lena struggled to sway its decision.

 _Please just put me in Slytherin_ she thought earnestly _Please please please put me in Slytherin._ She didn’t want to imagine the look of horror on her parents faces if she was sorted anywhere else. The disappointment that was sure to follow if she could not even be sorted correctly. She couldn’t be the one to bring dishonor to her family, not after everything that her brother had sacrificed; she had a legacy to uphold. This was her birthright. Her duty.

“Slytherin?” the hat taunted “are you quite sure my dear or is this request a ruse? Out of all the many paths to choose is this the one for you? Under my brim Miss Lena, there is no family and there is no dues, why under this hat my darling there is just me and there is just you. I see your thoughts I see your desires, I know your every dream, I can see your bright and brilliant mind with ideas it does teem, so I ask of you one last time is Slytherin where your heart truly lies?”

Lena nodded her head fervently, if she was sure about anything coming into Hogwarts, this was it. She had a destiny to fulfill, she had a duty to her family, she had to step up and be who she was trimmed and groomed to be, the heir to the Luthor name, the heir to the power behind it, the heir to adding to the generations of highly esteemed witches and wizards, she had to do this, she needed to do this.

“Hm, well if that is indeed the case, I suppose that makes my decision chaste,” the hat spoke aloud this time, its gritty voice scratching at Lena’s ears, “I can see you’re clever and cunning, but oh! There’s so much more! There’s bravery, honor, and strength that mustn’t be ignored! I have seen your inner workings what you love, what you abhor, and that is why Miss Luthor, you’ll do well in GRYFFINDOR!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I definitely used the original sorting hat song all credit for that goes to J.K. Rowling! any and all thoughts are appreciated I've started a blog on tumblr dedicated to any and all of my ideas and ramblings so if you want to check that out it's @luthorsandsupers thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finals week! which means that instead of studying I definitely went ahead and wrote 2 more chapters

The room was deadly silent as Lena slowly made her way to the back unoccupied portion of the Gryffindor table. She sat down at the corner and kept her eyes steadily in front of her trying her best not to let any of the tears that had gathered in her eyes slide down her cheeks. _There has to be some sort of mistake_ she thought miserably letting her head fall into her hands as she stared at the table. _I have to fix this_.

She hadn’t even noticed that the sorting was nearly over at this point and was only snapped out of her thoughts by a final round of loud applause from the entire room as the headmaster made his way to the podium. Her family had always spoken ill of professor Dumbledore when the subject was brought up at any of the dinners or meetings with the high ranking wizards and witches they called friends; but as the man stood at the podium welcoming all of the students to another fantastic year with a twinkle in his eyes and a mischievous smile, Lena couldn’t see what her parents despised so much about the professor.

“Welcome back to another fantastic year at Hogwarts!” he rasped gazing out onto the student body, “I would like to remind everyone that the forbidden forest is out of bounds for everyone, especially those of you who do not wish to be violently maimed or mauled!”

Lena couldn’t tell if the man was kidding or not, his tone was jovial but this didn’t seem to be a matter one would joke about, she glanced down the table to see some of the other younger students gazing at Dumbledore quizzically.

 “Furthermore,” he continued, Lena could have sworn he looked her directly in the eye, “I would like to welcome each and every new student this year! Despite the house rivalries and Quidditch matches, we are indeed a family! And Hogwarts will always be a place for you to call home.”

The hall cheered as Dumbledore stepped down from the podium and the food magically appeared in front of them.

Lena eyed the food warily, how did they expect her to eat when it felt like her stomach was already full of concrete? She grabbed a cup of water and sipped on it idly as she waited for the nightmare of a night to be over. She began plotting ways to write home and inform her family of the disappointment, not that she wasn’t sure they already knew, her parents always had a knack for finding out things that were going to get Lena into a lot of trouble.

The time seemed to pass at a snail’s pace; Lena was still nursing the glass of water when the desserts appeared on the table. She sighed and sunk lower into her seat as she felt stares burning into the side of her head.

“Of course the first bad witch from any house other than Slytherin had to be in the same house as us at the same time as us, just your luck dude!”

“Bet she speaks Parseltongue,”

“Best watch your mouth Justin she might curse you,”

Lena put her head down on the table and groaned, this was going to be the absolute worst seven years of her life.

 

After the food disappeared from the tables, Dumbledore stepped back up to the podium, “First years! If you could kindly follow your house’s prefects to your dormitories they will give you further instruction. Thank you and to all a good night!”

Lena saw the older students trickle out of the Great Hall until only the first years remained at the table. A tall girl with short dark hair stood up and started talking.

“Alright first years my name is Alex Danvers and I am one of the Gryffindor prefects this year-“

“And I’m Maggie, the all-around better more attractive Gryffindor prefect this year,” interrupted a smaller girl with dark shoulder length wavy hair.

The taller girl Alex gave Maggie a playful shove before resuming her speech, “And we will be here to guide you through the craziness that ensues during your first year at Hogwarts, does anyone have any questions before we head to the dorms?”

Lena struggled to find her voice as a million questions rolled around in her mind but she remained silent as a few of her classmates continued to throw her sideways glares.

“Alright then follow me!” they followed Alex and Maggie up a couple of sets of winding staircases before the first one moved from out in front of them.

“And that,” said Maggie, “Is why it is imperative that you always watch where the stairs are going because more often than not, they have a mind of their own.”

Lena looked down entranced and watched the marble staircases beneath them shift and move and grow and shrink as they changed paths at will. The dark haired girl was also in awe of the thousands of paintings adorning the walls, all of them were chatting casually noting to each other that the new batch of first years had arrived. The castle was huge, she noted, and she was definitely going to get lost a few times.

They finally stopped in front of a painting of a more robust looking woman with a crown of laurels on her head.

“This is the Fat Lady,” Alex said facing the first years. _Well that’s a rather rude name to call her_ Lena thought to herself frowning softly. “She is the keeper of the door into the Gryffindor common room. All you need to do is give her the password and she’ll let you in.”

“Hello young ones!” the woman in the painting sang to them, “Welcome welcome welcome to Hogwarts! We’re so excited to have your bright shining faces joining us in Gryffindor!” the Fat Lady skimmed the crowd of newcomers before landing her eyes on Lena. To Lena’s surprise she said nothing but held a curious look on her face as she continued talking to Alex and Maggie.

As the prefects talked to the painting, she could hear the mumbled conversations around her, “Man I would not be happy if I had to sleep next to a Luthor” “How much trouble do you think someone would get in if they jinxed her in her sleep? Hypothetically speaking of course,” “I bet you’ll be first to go Lance,” “Shut the fuck up Logan!”

Lena’s stomach churned as she thought of what could possibly go down in the room once everyone had left but her peers who all obviously hated her guts. She swallowed dryly and kept her eyes forward pretending not to notice the conversations taking place around her.

“Alright guys the password for this year is Fortitudo.”

At Alex’s mention of the password, the painting swung open like a door and the first years started to pile into the common room until Alex and Lena were the only ones outside the door. Lena could hear Maggie inside giving her classmates further instruction.

“Excuse me,” Lena said timidly while reaching out to tap Alex on the shoulder. Alex jumped slightly at the contact before turning around, her eyes widened when she saw the Luthor standing in front of her.

“What can I do for you?” Alex asked slowly crossing her arms over her chest while staring the girl down inquisitively.

“I can’t go in there,” she whispered hoarsely, “everyone hates me, and there is way more of them than there are of me, we both know I don’t belong in this house, please please will you help me.”

Alex could see the sheen of tears coating Lena’s eyes and she could hear the crack in her voice as she spoke softly to her. She glanced inside and saw Maggie showing the rest of the kids to their rooms. Lena noticed that her eyes lingered on the back of a blonde head before the girl went upstairs with the rest of Lena’s house. She sighed and looked back down to the dark haired girl in front of her.

“C’mon,” she said finally relenting, “Let’s go talk to professor Dumbledore about it.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dunnnn who is the blonde? will we find out next chapter? Maybe, but probably not. But she's definitely coming I promise ; )))


	4. chapter 4

Lena walked silently beside Alex as they made their way to Dumbledore’s office, Lena moved silently but confidently, trying to reestablish her indifferent persona after showing too much emotion around the Gryffindor prefect.

Alex glanced at the Luthor as they walked down the corridor; there was something cocky about the way the girl nearly strutted down the hallway. Alex rolled her eyes, of course, this girl probably played her like a piano to complain to the headmaster about having to share a room with muggle borns or something else equally as elitist. Alex felt her shoulders stiffen as she began letting her emotions get the best of her thinking about this girl and her family’s reputation. About how they had ripped her little sister’s world out from under her. Alex sighed and put on her game face, she was a prefect she had to be the bigger person.  

They arrived in front of a statue of a gargoyle, Lena looked around puzzled. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I thought we were going to the headmaster’s office,” the green eyed girl said slowly as she eyed her surroundings, there were no paintings or doors in sight.

Alex smirked as she looked down to the girl next to her. “Chocolate Frogs,” she said confidently.

The gargoyle statue sprung to life and moved aside, revealing a winding staircase. Lena followed Alex with her mouth slightly agape at the intricacies of the castle.

When they reached the top Alex quickly rapped on the door and waited. The girls heard a faint, “Come in!” before opening up the door and walking into the office.

Lena’s eyes widened as she tried to take everything in, swirling silver devices hung on the walls and maps and charts of the stars lined the ceilings. In the corner was a giant white marble basin that Lena identified as a pensieve, her father kept one in the office that was off limits to her back at the manor.

Dumbledore smiled as he saw the two girls approaching his desk hesitantly, “Ms. Danvers! Ms. Luthor! What may I do for you on this fine evening?” he asked jovially motioning towards the plush arm chairs that sat in front of his desk.

Lena sat down and crossed her legs while Alex remained standing behind her. “Ms. Luthor had a few issues that she wanted to address with you professor,” she said politely.

“Ah yes,” Dumbledore said while stroking his beard, “Ms. Danvers if you could give us a moment alone to chat it would be very much appreciated.”

Alex nodded and closed the door behind her on her way out. The thud made Lena jump slightly in her chair.

Dumbledore chuckled as he spun around to meet her eyes, “what may I do for you Ms. Lena,” he said kindly, the light in his eyes calmed her nerves slightly.

“I would be very grateful if maybe you would consider rethinking my erm, sorting,” she said softly glancing back and forth between the elderly professor and the great red bird sleeping on its stand behind him.

“Oh my, why I do believe you are asking the wrong person about this Ms. Luthor,” Dumbledore said with a smile, “but lucky for you that another more suited for your question is present.”

Dumbledore motioned up to a shelf where the tattered sorting hat sat on display. “Back so soon Ms. Luthor?” the hat inquired haughtily, “what an honor it is indeed, to be graced with your presence twice in one night.”

“What happened to the rhyming thing?” Lena blurted, her cheeks began to heat up as she heard the headmaster chortle across from her.

“That’s really more of a gimmick to put first years on edge, but tell anyone my secret and you will not be fond of the consequences.”

“I won’t” Lena ensured the hat earnestly, “I just had a quick question to ask, more of a favor really.”

“You want to know if I would reconsider your sorting arrangement, alas Ms. Luthor, I am afraid what is done is done.”

Lena felt her heart crash and burn in the pit of her stomach at the confirmation of her fears. Her mother was going to kill her.

“And might I add that the house you were begging me to be in was not even the next in line for you,” the hat informed her, “but really it was not much of a competition, I am a hat that does not make mistakes, and you my dear are as much of a Gryffindor as everyone else that I have sorted into Gryffindor.”

Lena fought the urge to roll her eyes at the hat, “I don’t know if you remember,” she said icily, “but my last name happens to be Luthor, my family has been in Slytherin for generations.”

“Oh Ms. Luthor but what is truly in a name? Expectations perhaps, generalizations? Maybe. But judge not a Hippogriff by his feathers or a person by their name, because both, you will find, tend to surprise you.”

Lena sighed dejectedly and glanced back over at the professor who was fiddling with a tiny golden telescope on his desk.

“Forgive me,” he said looking up, “I did not mean to intrude, but as you can see, I am in a bit of a bind when it comes to over hearing.”

Lena gave the man a small smile that quickly faded as she thought of returning to the Gryffindor common room.

“I’m afraid,” she admitted quietly.

Dumbledore’s demeanor became solemn as he eyed the small girl in front of him.

“May I ask why my dear?” he asked softly ducking his head to meet Lena’s stare.

“I’m afraid of the whispers, and the stares. I’m afraid of waking up and finding my legs bound together or my hair dyed green. I’m terrified that I will be exactly what everyone expects me to be,” Lena bit her lip as she looked up to see Dumbledore giving her a small sad smile.

“Ms. Luthor,” he said confidently, “I have a feeling that you will be like nothing anyone has ever seen.”

Lena stared at him briefly before looking back down into her lap, unsure of what to do next.

Dumbledore grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled something on it before nudging the great bird awake and placing it in his talons. “Fawkes if you could deliver this to professor McGonagall that would be lovely. Quickly, quickly Ms. Luthor doesn’t have all night.”

The bird took off in a giant whoosh of feathers leaving the professor alone with a confused Lena sitting before him.

“Professor McGonagall will meet you back in the common room, it is of utmost importance to me that every student in this school feels safe and sound, even you Ms. Luthor.”

Lena smiled confusedly before thanking him and heading out the door.

Alex was leaning against the wall attempting to look distracted and bored.

“How did it go?” she asked the younger girl lazily.

Lena looked up at her and stared for a moment.

“You know, I’m not actually sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is shaping up to be a lot longer than I originally planned, hope that's ok with you guys, lemme know what y'all think I definitely appreciate any and all feedback! Thanks for reading!


	5. chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the chapter is worth the little wait! but finals week is over and I get to really focus on developing the story now so I'm super pumped, on with the show! (P.S. brief mentions of some abuse)

On their arrival back to the common room, Alex and Lena were met with the sight of professor McGonagall sitting on a couch dressed in a nightgown and not looking pleased.

“Ms. Luthor,” the professor stated curtly, “I would like to do this as quickly as possible, as you can see, I have been interrupted from my rest for this matter and I would like to get it over with if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course professor,” Lena said quickly, “but may I ask what it is that we’re doing exactly?”

“Ms. Danvers, thank you for your help this evening, I’m sure you are anxious to get upstairs and settle in,” McGonagall said ignoring Lena’s question.

Alex nodded and wished Lena a goodnight before climbing up the stairs that lead to the girls’ rooms. Lena watched her until she turned the corner and let her eyes wander back down to settle on the professor sitting in front of her.

McGonagall stood up and began walking towards the stairs as well, “if you would follow me please Ms. Luthor I’m sure we can get you accommodated.”

Lena followed the professor up the stairs and stopped when McGonagall stopped in front of a wall adjacent to the hall containing the varying dormitories. She could see the gold numbers that separated the rooms by years shimmering in the light of the torches lighting the hallway.

Lena watched mystified as the head of Gryffindor house ran her wand down the bricks of the wall. Suddenly the wall sprang to life, the bricks began peeling back to reveal a mahogany door. Professor McGonagall turned the doorknob and pushed the door in, revealing a small room with a four poster bed in the middle, Lena noticed offhandedly that somehow her bags had already made their way to the end of her bed.

The room was dark and cold, the inside was lined only with gray bricks and Lena wondered briefly if her view was similar to the one that Lex had at the very same moment.

McGonagall waved her wand once more and a window opened up on the wall next to her bed and lamps appeared and mounted themselves to the walls casting a warm glow around the room and making Lena’s shadow grow along the wall. Lena stood mouth agape as she took in the cozy room around her and for the first time she realized just how tired she actually was.

“I assume everything is to your standards Ms. Luthor? We may not be able to provide fur rugs and satin sheets but I can assume that it at least bears some resemblance of home.”

Lena’s cheeks darkened as she turned to the professor expecting accusing eyes but was instead met with a small grin and a teasing gaze. The dark haired girl offered a small smile in return before nodding timidly at the head of her house.

“If that will be all Ms. Luthor I will be returning to my quarters.”

Professor McGonagall turned to leave but Lena reached out and gently tapped her shoulder causing her to turn back around.

“Thank you,” the dark haired girl said quietly, “you didn’t have to do this for me, I don’t want to be a hassle and I am definitely not looking out for any sort of special treatment.”

“It’s no trouble at all Ms. Luthor, accommodations are made all the time with reasons ranging from health related issues to rather loud snoring. Making sure all of our students are cared for is no hassle. Maintaining the welfare of everyone is one of my top priorities, you are no exception dear.” McGonagall squeezed Lena’s shoulder and left her to settle in to her new home.

Lena flopped face first on top of her bed when she heard the door close behind her professor. She groaned as she kicked off her shoes and loosened the tie around her neck finally letting herself relax after the absolute shit show of a day she just experienced. She rolled over on her back as she let the reality of the situation settle fully onto her and she winced as she thought back to her parents and what they would think about the mess that she had gotten herself into.

Her father would probably run his fingers through his hair while shaking his head in silent anger while her mother would remind her yet again that she would never come close to being the ‘real Luthor’ they’d hoped she would become when they adopted her all those years before. She visibly shuddered at the thought of the drunken rampages that were sure to follow the recognition of her failures, they always followed after she reminded her parents that the real Luthor, their perfect son, was spending the rest of his life behind bars and they were stuck here with her. The disappointing problem child.

The green eyed girl closed her eyes and reminisced on the nights she spent hiding under her covers behind locked doors as she heard the telltale sounds of breaking glass and the violent screams flooding the house and echoing off of the walls. She could hear the rage in her mother’s voice as she accused her father of being weak and misguided for deciding to adopt her in the first place.

Lena shook herself out of her memories and decided that she needed to sleep more than she needed to wallow in the past and the inevitable future, she needed to be rested for tomorrow so she could focus on kicking ass for the next seven years so that she could prove to her parents that she was not a mistake or a lapse in judgment. She would fight tooth and nail to make a name for herself that she could be proud of, that everyone would be in awe of.

Lena shuffled out of her robes and into one of the few t-shirts that she owned and settled into the soft sheets of her new bed. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 

 

Lena was recognizing the beginnings of a routine as she sat down at the corner of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall for breakfast. She poured herself a cup of coffee as she looked over the schedule that had been taped onto her door. She rolled her eyes as she noticed that they would be sharing three of their classes of the day with the Slytherins, including the first one that started at 9. Lena looked over at the clock on the wall and noted that she had a good hour before being able to make her way to class.

“You’re the girl that didn’t eat last night.”

Lena startled and spilled her coffee on the schedule in front of her as she realized that she was in fact not alone. She looked up to find a girl with long blonde hair and intensely pale blue eyes. She regained her composure when she saw the girl in front of her smirk at her blunder and quirk an eyebrow. Lena dabbed at the spill with her napkin and put on her ‘I don’t give a fuck’ face in an attempt to frighten the girl. To Lena’s satisfaction the smirk slipped from the blonde’s face but she held Lena’s icy stare confidently.

“Who’s asking?” Lena drawled raising an eyebrow challengingly.

“Oh I wasn’t asking,” the girl said with an annoying smile, “it was merely an observation. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that skipping meals isn’t good for you?”

“Well yours obviously didn’t teach you not to stick your nose into other people’s business so maybe they’re both lacking in the life lessons department,” Lena quipped haughtily. Two could play this game.

To her surprise the blonde girl began to laugh. Lena held her ground and kept her face stoic as she waited for the blonde to explain herself.

“I knew this was a good idea,” the blonde said with a grin, “I’m Sara Lance, I don’t think we’ve been acquainted quite yet.”

The girl stuck her hand towards Lena; the Luthor stared at her for a few moments before taking it cautiously and giving it a quick shake.

“I’m-” Lena began

“I know your name Luthor,” Sara interrupted with a smarmy grin.

“Obviously not. It’s just Lena thank you,” Lena said tersely.

Nothing seemed to bother the other girl, all of the sass and snark Lena could muster up was being shot down with sarcastic smiles and rolling eyes.

“I get it, family equals touchy subject. I can relate,” Sara offered the dark haired girl a genuine smile before grabbing a plate and piling eggs onto it. “So ‘just Lena’ are you going to eat this year or are the rumors of your vampirism true?” Sara flashed Lena a joking grin and Lena felt the corner of her mouth tug upward slightly at the brusqueness of the strange girl in front of her.

Lena grabbed a plate and stacked a few pancakes that she hesitantly sliced into. She moaned at the feeling of food sliding into her empty stomach, she hadn’t realized the extent of her hunger. Sara laughed again at the girl in front of her hastily tucking into her food and followed suit.

“So definitely not a vampire, duly noted.”

The girls ate their food in relative silence, although it didn’t take either of them long to finish. When they were done with the food on their plates Lena turned to the blonde, the business like look returning to her face.

“So what do you want from me Sara?” She inquired directly as her hands folded in front of her waiting for the girl to respond.

“Nothing.” The blonde poured herself a glass of orange juice before offering the pitcher to the girl across from her. Lena grabbed the pitcher and frowned.

“Nothing at all?” Lena asked again while pouring the juice into the cup.

“Nope,” Sara popped the ‘p’ and threw the juice back with all the experience of a seasoned whiskey drinker, Lena would know; it was her father’s drink of choice.

Lena waited for the inevitable ‘but’ or even for the girl to simply get up and walk away but Sara Lance remained in front of her and began talking to her around a mouthful of a donut.

“Me ‘n you are in cahoots now,” she said with her hand covering her mouth so none of the pastry would fall out.

“Cahoots?” Lena questioned warily eyeing the blonde as she finished swallowing her breakfast and offered Lena a powdered sugar coated grin.

“Cahoots indeed,” Sara offered easily. She wiped her mouth off on the sleeve of her robe leaving a white streak on the black cuff. She rolled her eyes when Lena cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion.

“We’re doing business together. I would prefer my experience at this school be a pleasurable one which means that I am in need of the company of people who are actually competent,” Sara explained slowly.

Lena looked at the blonde dumbfounded.

“So like… friends,” Lena said slowly wondering why the girl hadn’t lead with that in the first place.

“Ah ah ah, don’t go getting the wrong ideas Lena, cahoots and friendship are two very different things.” Sara smirked playfully at the flabbergasted girl in front of her as she floundered for an understanding of the conversation that was taking place.

Lena rolled her eyes and rubbed her temples before sighing and looking back at the witch in front of her. “Ok,” she agreed slowly, “Cahoots it is.”

Sara merely shook her head and picked up a copy of The Daily Prophet that was sitting on the table near them so she could whack Lena playfully on the back of the head.

“Careful Lance!” came a voice from down the table, “we don’t need any unforgivable curses flying out of her before we even get to start classes!”

“For the last fucking time, shut the fuck up Logan, or the only one getting cursed around here will be you,” Sara hollered down the table with a fierce glare on her face.

Lena stared at her with her mouth slightly agape as the blonde turned back to look at her.

“What did I tell you? Utter incompetence. Everyone in our year is either too soft or just plain stupid,” Sara chuckled uneasily as Lena broke her stare and looked down to the table.

“You didn’t have to do that Sara, I am quite used to it and I can indeed take care of myself,” Lena said offhandedly while avoiding direct eye contact with the girl across from her.

“Oh, I know,” Sara laughed, “But starting off the morning with a balanced breakfast and yelling at assholes is an important part of my day, it readies my mind for learning and puts me more at peace with the world,” the blonde said in all seriousness, and Lena believed her.

The girls sat exchanging small talk and finishing the pitcher of juice between the two of them. Before long they looked up and realized that the Great Hall was mostly empty, Lena looked up at the clock on the wall that now read 8:55.

“Shit! We’re going to be late!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really love the idea of them being bros and Sara being the Ultimate Wingman TM when the time comes ;))))))) thanks for reading! Lemme know what y'all think! my tumblr dedicated to all things supergirl is @luthorsandsupers if y'all are looking for some of my less refined ramblings about this story as well as some others rolling around in my head fwwdback is loved and appreciated!


	6. chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only update in the dead of night, it's fine I'm totally thriving :-)))))

The girls barely made it to Transfiguration on time, professor McGonagall gave them a small warning tut and a sly smile as she closed the door behind them and they found seats at a table in the middle of the classroom.

The class itself was dull, at least it had been to Lena. She had already finished the first ten chapters of their textbook and the professor had only brushed on the introductory chapter to the basics of Transfiguration. The dark haired girl doodled idly in her notebook as she watched Sara furiously scribble notes onto her paper next to her.

Lena was fascinated with the idea of Transfiguration, breaking down the molecular structure of one object and watching it rearrange itself into something completely different, it was beautiful. When professor McGonagall transformed a full grown raven into a crystal clear vase she had to hold herself back from letting out a soft gasp.

As the class was wrapping up and the girls were packing up their bags they heard a voice call out from behind them.

“Well well well, if it isn’t my favorite first year, tell me Luthor, what would mommy think if she could see you gallivanting around with a blood traitor,” Maxwell Lord all but crowed.

Lena’s eyes narrowed as she turned swiftly on her heel to face the boy behind her.

“Why Max, I didn’t think it was possible for a fifth year to be so stupid that he had to take an introductory course five times in a row. I’m actually quite amazed, you managed to blow a hole through the already low expectations that I held for you,” Lena snarked coldly watching the boy go red in the face.

“I’m not in your fucking Transfiguration class,” he hissed menacingly. He straightened up and fixed his tie as he regained his composure and threw the girls a cocky grin. “I’m actually one of the Slytherin prefects and I’m here out of the kindness of my heart to show the first years to their next class. After all, the future of the wizarding world resides with them, can’t afford to have them miss out and take the chance of having some mudblood running things. Or someone like this riff raff you call company,” Max said gesturing toward Sara who had her fist balled tightly around her wand.

“The only blood you should be worrying about Lord is your own and how much of it you’re going to lose when I knock you in the teeth!” Sara yelled as she lunged at the prefect.

Lena grabbed Sara before she could do something stupid in front of the professor who was still lingering somewhere in the classroom.

“I think it would be best if you left now,” Lena said icily as she held a flailing Sara around the middle.

“Whatever Luthor, I’ll be seeing you around when you decide to actually associate with the people who matter,” he said with a wink at the dark haired girl who eyed him angrily, “later blood traitor,” he called over his shoulder to a seething Sara.

The girls watched as he approached two dumb looking Slytherin boys and threw his arms around their shoulders before steering them out of the room.

“Well there’s part of my life I’ll never get back,” Sara grouched as they picked up their bags and walked out of the room and into the corridor toward their Charms class. “And you didn’t have to do that for me back there, I know he’s probably like, a family friend or something.”

“Well,” Lena said slowly stopping to look at the blonde next to her, “we are in cahoots now, I had to honor that bond. Also he’s a jackass, so don’t worry about him. Or my family for that matter, if something like that happens again, I won’t hesitate to shut it down. I can handle my family, but I don’t necessarily have to handle the elitist morons here, so I definitely choose not to.”

Sara smiled as they continued walking toward the east wing. They chatted aimlessly until they reached their classroom and saw that their encounter with Max Lord had put then farther behind schedule than anticipated. The room was full of desks lined up to face each other and only two desks were open, and they weren’t facing each other.

“See you on the flip side?” Sara mumbled as the class stared at the two girls walking in late. Lena nodded mutely and made her way to sit across from a chubby Hufflepuff boy who was chewing on the edge of his pen.

When Lena sat down the boy hastily spat the pen out of his mouth and sat up straighter. He gave her an awkward smile, one which she did not return as the tiny professor at the front of the class began to speak.

“Good morning class! I am your charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, and today we are going to try an exercise that I think that you will all enjoy! And it will help you get to know your classmates a little better. I want you to consult the textbook for the characteristics that apply to your wands! After all! If you don’t know the wand how do you expect it to do what you ask it to? Alright chop chop I want to see team work! Inter-house collaboration! And notes! Be sure to take notes!”

Lena had to fight the urge to roll her eyes as she noticed the boy across from her was visibly sweating as he dug through his bag for his textbook. She grabbed her book and flipped it to the chapter entitled “The Structure of the Wand.” She neatly laid her notebook in front of her and uncapped her pen and sat it atop the pages. She took her wand from her bag and looked it over before setting it down next to the book on her desk.

She saw the boy across from her raise an eyebrow at her tidy desk as he looked down sheepishly at the pile of items on his own.

The boy cleared his throat noisily and raised his hand out to the Luthor.

“Hi my name’s Winn,” he said with a crack in his voice. He closed his eyes tightly as he let his hand drop to the table without even waiting for Lena to take it.

“Lena,” the dark haired girl said in return as she stared the awkward boy down, “but I’m sure you already knew that.”

Winn nodded at the girl in front of him, “Well yeah, partly. Everyone mostly just calls you ‘Luthor’ or ‘the Luthor girl’ and some people are calling you ‘Vampira’ but I think that one is a bit of a stretch. Unless you actually are a vampire which is like totally fine if that’s the case I won’t tell anyone or anything. Anyway I wasn’t too clear on what you went by so...”

“Lena will do fine thanks,” Lena said around a tight lipped smile. This was going to be a long class.

“So uh... how do you wanna do this? Do you want to go one at a time or something?” Winn asked nervously.

Lena nodded and held out her hand to take the wand that Winn was offering her to look at. His wand was a good few inches shorter than her own and was significantly lighter in her hand.

“What’re the dimensions?” she asked while skimming through the textbook definitions and meanings of each aspect of the wand.

“It’s a nine and a half elm with unicorn hair. The guy that sold it to me said something about it being springy? Or something” Winn said while rubbing the back of his head and scribbling notes on the torn parchment in front of him.

“It is quite short,” Lena mumbled to herself.

“Hey!” Winn said heatedly, “Size doesn’t matter!”

Lena cocked an eyebrow at him teasingly, “Size always matters Winn,” she said very seriously while masking the smile that was threatening to pull at the sides of her mouth.

Winn rolled his eyes exasperatedly and snatched his wand out of the girl’s hand, “So I’ve heard,” he sassed back at her.

Lena looked back down to the textbook and searched for the combination of elm and unicorn hair.

“It says here,” she started, “that elm combined with unicorn hair is a fairly common wand type and signifies that its user is trustworthy and loyal. Your wand is good for charms and defensive spells. Pretty cool that all of this can be told just through what type of wand someone has.”

Winn nodded in agreement as he turned his wand over in his hands and fiddled with the carvings of the handle. Lena handed him her wand and his eyes widened comically.

“Why is yours so much bigger?” he asked in a huff.

Lena merely laughed as the boy turned the twelve and three quarter inch wand over in his hand in admiration.

“So what’re the dimensions on this thing? It’s kind of heavy,” Winn babbled while weighing the wand in his hand before dropping it onto his desk with a clatter, causing some of the people next to them to crane their heads in their direction.

Lena snatched her wand off of the desk and rubbed it off on her sleeve. “It’s twelve and three quarter inches hawthorn and dragon heartstring.” She said while searching through her textbook for the definitions to write in her notes.

“Huh, interesting,” Winn said while bent over his textbook scribbling notes in the margin, “Says here that hawthorn’s not used all that often. Most likely means it’s a powerful wand owned by a powerful wizard. Good for cursing. I will keep that in mind for future references,” Winn looked up at her with a dorky grin causing Lena to roll her eyes for what felt like the millionth time in the class.

“It would take quite a bit for me to try to curse you, although Sara on the other hand…” she looked across the room to see the blonde in a heated argument with a dopey looking brunette Hufflepuff boy who was holding her wand just out of her reach.

“Lance?” Winn asked turning to look in the same direction as Lena, “Yeah well in her defense, Mike isn’t exactly the easiest guy to put up with from what I’ve gathered.” Winn made a face as the other boy took an elbow to the nose from the blonde Gryffindor as she climbed over his desk to snatch her wand out of his hands.

Professor Flitwick announced that they had done a wonderful job and that class was dismissed for the day. Lena gathered her things while bidding Winn a farewell and made her way over to Sara who was still seething.

“You alright there slugger?” Lena grinned as Sara grumbled and slung her bag over her shoulder.

“Men.” She stated in a huff causing Lena to snicker at her as they began to make their way to the rest of their classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what y'all think! hit up my blog @luthorsandsupers I'm always down for prompts and questions! thanks for reading hope y'all enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bit of a time skip to get the story rolling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think y'all will like the direction the story is starting to take (TW: Brief mentions of abuse and allusions to eating disorders)

For Lena first year seemed to pass in a haze of never ending study sessions and crazy schemes headed by Sara that they’d gotten very good at talking their way out of. The year had gone by quickly and the girls were sitting quietly in their train cart watching the scenery blur by as the sped toward King’s Cross Station. Neither of them had explicitly talked about it but Lena knew that Sara could sense her hesitance at returning to the Luthor manor, especially after the fiasco that had been Christmas break.

Lena closed her eyes and bit back the groan she could feel rise up her throat as she thought about the last time that she had been home. She had spent the few days that she chose to return home locked inside her room, every time she worked up the courage to leave she was met with her mother nursing a glass of wine and interrogating her about where her loyalties to her family lie, or giving her a speech that always started off with “We did not raise you this way.” Lena didn’t know how exactly to respond to that particular accusation because she is indeed the way she is today because of the family that she had been raised in. She was reminded every day that she was just as cold and calculating and untrustworthy as the rest of her family, all she had to do to seek confirmation was look at anyone’s face as she passed them through the hallways or sit at a table and have everyone in the vicinity evacuate like she was on fire.

She thought to her father and his less than pleasant reaction as she first walked through the doors after spending her first few months at school. Sara hadn’t questioned the hand print like bruises that snaked their way around her forearms; she instead invited the Luthor to spend some time at the Lance household over the summer holidays.

 “My sister Laurel is like never home she’s off gallivanting with her perfectly dreamy _fiancé_. Perfect Head Girl Laurel with perfect Head Boy Ollie are gonna get perfectly engaged after graduation and have a perfectly fairytale wedding and have perfectly bratty kids. Makes me wanna barf,” the blonde had grouched playfully as they lay sprawled on top of Lena’s bed that was covered in their notes for their potions final, “although Oliver is pretty cool I guess, my dad wasn’t too hot about Laurel dating a Slytherin let alone richy rich Oliver Queen but I actually think he managed to win him over. And trust me, if you knew my dad, you’d know that that is a feat all in itself.” Lena had laughed delighted at Sara’s stories of growing up in her busy household, she liked hearing about the Lance family and how utterly _real_ they seemed. How normal and loving if not a bit wild and out there.

“They’re totally gonna get married this summer and you can be my plus one! Probably have to wear a gross puffy bride’s maid dress though…” Sara said with a scowl as Lena continued to shuffle the notes in her hand and giggle at her friend’s antics, thoughts of bruises and screams and expectations long gone from the Luthor’s mind as she relished in the magical feeling of safety that the castle gave. 

As Lena brought her focus back to the train ride she was sharing with her blonde cohort she looked up and saw the girl staring thoughtfully at her, Lena offered her a reassuring smile as she straightened up and stretched her arms out in front of her.

“You can come to my place to visit anytime you want, not just for the wedding, just so you know,” Sara said with a nudge to Lena’s shoulder.

The dark haired girl swatted at her playfully and turned back to kick her legs up on the seat across from her.

“Who says I want to be seeing you any more than I have to?” Lena said with a playfully serious face causing the other girl to scoff and throw Lena’s book that had fallen in the floor at the green eyed girl’s head.

The rest of the ride passed quickly and much to both of the girls’ disappointment the train slowed to a stop in the station. Lena hugged her friend good-bye with promises to write and watched her saunter off to her family sneaking up behind Oliver and giving him a solid flick to the ear.

Lena felt her face slip into a stoic impassive mask as she found her trunks and made her way over to Roberta who was waiting for her at the edge of the crowd. The house maid smiled at the girl and gave her a quick hug as they loaded into the back of a muggle taxi cab and headed back home.

There were no words exchanged when she walked through the door and Lena was almost thankful for the radio silence. She went upstairs and unpacked her bags and fell backward onto her bed. She felt her eyes drift shut on their own accord and fell headfirst into a deep dreamless sleep.

 

 

 

Summer went by even more slowly than the school year seemed to. Lena spent every opportunity she could trying to impress her mother at the fancy galas and dinners that she hosted, she was the picture perfect daughter catering to everyone that her parents had deemed important with the utmost care. She laughed through dull jokes and tried her best not to stiffen as old drunk men snaked their hands around the girl’s waist while they were talking, she was even able to talk up her father’s next business venture with the minister’s wife earning her a tight lipped smile and nod from her mother across the table.

Lena was exhausted, but the thing that kept her going was the prospect of spending the weekend at the Lance home in just a short month. The invitation had arrived by owl a week before with Sara’s unmistakable scrawl on the back reading “Roses are red, violets are blue, be my plus one because there will be booze!!” Lena had afforded herself a small giggle before wandering downstairs trying to work up the courage to ask her parents about the trip.

When Lena had mentioned the Queen boy her mother had clapped ecstatically and complimented her on finally expanding her circle of friends to include more appropriate individuals.

“You should get cozy with the Merlyn boy I’m sure he is bound to be there those two are attached at the hip,” her mother had said excitedly.

Lena felt the color drain from her cheeks at the thought of getting romantically involved with Tommy Merlyn.

“Mother,” she said with a forced laugh, “He’s significantly older than me, I couldn’t possibly think of letting him pursue me, but I will keep my eyes open for anyone with potential.” Lena felt her mouth move into a grimace that she hoped looked enough like a smile to satisfy her mother. Lillian beamed in response so she must have done something right.

“I’ll get you a dress immediately, expect it on your bed tomorrow.” Lena watched as her mother walked off to the fire place and Floo her way to Diagon Alley to undoubtedly spend ridiculous amounts of money on a dress that Lena would wear once. Lena sighed, things were finally starting to maybe look up.

When Lena awoke the next morning she saw a lovely lilac gown on the end of her bed waiting to be tried on. When she picked it up and looked at the tag she frowned at what she saw. Her mother had picked out a dress that was two sizes too small.

Lena felt her stomach drop and her eyes widen at the implications behind the dress and promptly removed her shirt so she could stare at herself in her vanity mirror. She had never had the thoughts of needing to lose weight cross her mind but as she pinched at the skin of her hips she blanched. _Maybe mother’s right_ she thought forlornly. The longer she stared the more uncomfortable she became. She put her shirt back on as well as a pair of shorts and grabbed her tennis shoes as she quickly made her way down the stairs.

“Going somewhere?” she heard her mother call after her as she made her way to the front door.

“Run,” she said brusquely turning her face slightly to see her mother smile out of the edge of her eye. She let the door slam behind her on her way out.

 

 

Lena felt a sigh of relief leave her body as Sara zipped the back to her dress up in her bedroom just a few hours before the wedding was supposed to take place. It was tight on her skin fitting her like a glove and accentuating the slight curve of her waist.

“What happened to you did you hit a growth spurt?” the blonde laughed cheerfully as she swept Lena’s wavy hair to the side and looked at her in the mirror, “You’re like a size nothing.”

Lena adverted her gaze to the lipstick she was turning over in her hand before uncapping it and touching up before handing it back to Sara to let her do the same.

“Well madam maid of honor,” the Luthor sang playfully, “Let’s get this party started!”

 

 

Lena sighed as she finished putting her room back together. She felt like she was walking on clouds after finally coming back to the castle she called home for her second year. She was singing quietly under her breath when she heard the door close softly behind her.

“You should really knock I could’ve been naked,” Lena said playfully as she smoothed her blanket down at the end of her bed.

“You know you’re like really pretty right?” Sara said softly as she stood with her back to the door looking at the darker headed girl with sad eyes.

Lena stopped in her tracks as she slowly turned back to look at the other girl and cocked an eyebrow at her.

“I know you didn’t eat much tonight Lena and I know you know I saw you undress in my room,” the blonde continued as she slowly made her way over to the green eyed girl frozen in place near the end of her bed. “And I know we don’t normally get all deep if we don’t have to and we don’t talk about family or what happens or what has happened or whatever but Lena we definitely can.” The blonde witch looked at her with pleading eyes as she saw Lena begin to raise her hand and wave her off but Sara grabbed it and pulled her into a hug.

Lena was stunned at the turn of the conversation but let herself be held by Sara nonetheless. It had been a long time since she felt comfortable in someone’s embrace so she relished in it and relaxed as she let her arms fold behind Sara’s back as she let a few tears slip out of the corners of her eyes.

“I want what’s best for you dude and don’t test me ok, you know I’ll be watching to make sure this thing whatever it may be doesn’t get out of hand,” Sara said around a watery laugh as she squeezed Lena a little tighter before letting her go.

Lena nodded and tried to stealthily wipe away the few tears that leaked out during the exchange and Sara laughed at her pitiful attempts. They both stared at each other briefly before Lena started giggling softly, with so many emotions running through her body she didn’t know how to handle everything that was finally coming out into the open. Soon both of the girls were bent over laughing and grabbing onto each other trying to keep the tears at bay, this time for extremely different reasons. They sat down on Lena’s four poster as they began to calm down and Sara slung her arm over Lena’s shoulder.

“You know Luthor, I think we might actually be friends now,” Sara giggled as she rested her head on the taller girl’s shoulder.

Lena gasped playfully as she threw a dramatic hand over her mouth, “Why I do declare Miss Lance are you going soft on me?” she said through a bout of snickers.

Sara shoved off of her and rolled off the bed before striking a heroic pose in the middle of the room, hands poised on her hips and her feet comically wide set underneath her.

“I am not soft ever Miss Luthor, in fact I am as rock hard as my amazing abs,” she said with a triumphant air to her tone, “And the real reason I came here was to fetch you and you fantastically beautiful broom to accompany me to the quidditch pitch!” she said grabbing Lena’s new broom her mother had bought her and slinging it gracefully behind her back and letting it come to rest on her shoulder.

Lena rolled her eyes playfully, of course Sara was going to cash in her offer to help her train for quidditch tryouts as soon as possible, the girl was obsessed.

They made their way down to the pitch, the giant stadium lights illuminating the sky and causing their shadows to grow across the crisp grass of the field. Sara slung her legs over her own broom and shot up to hover so that her feet dangled just above Lena’s shoulders.

“How do you want me to help you?” Lena called up to her as she set the chest containing the balls on the ground.

Sara tossed the small bat she brought with her between her hands and twirled it upside down catching it behind her back. She grinned at the Luthor who rolled her eyes at the blonde’s showboating.

“Well what position do you think you should play that would most benefit me trying to hit the bludgers at you?” she said teasingly as she pretended to take a swing at Lena’s head with the bat.

“Well I usually just played seeker when I played with Lex or with any of his friends when they would come over and ask me to join,” she said while rubbing her chin indecisively.

“That sounds good to me, you can chase the snitch and I’ll try to chase you. Or defend you. Whichever I feel like doing at the time,” Sara said with a grin, “So keep your head up yeah?”

“I’ll try,” Lena grumbled as she prepared to release the angry black balls from their confines. As Lena unlocked their restraints they took off shooting into the sky with an energetic Sara following them into the sky whooping as she took her first swing.

Lena grabbed the small snitch and watched as it stretched its golden wings and began humming in her hand. It took off behind Sara and the bludgers and Lena sighed as she mounted her broom and shot into the sky. This was going to be interesting.

 

 

The girls were winding down one of their practice sessions a week before tryouts when Sara touched down off of her broom and allowed herself to sprawl out onto the pitch sweaty and exhausted. Lena followed suit much more gracefully, tucking her legs underneath her as she sat and looked up into the night sky.

“You know it’s bad when even the stars are stressing you out, it’s just reminding me that we have those star charts due next Wednesday for Astronomy,” Sara groaned as she turned over onto her stomach to look out onto the grass and sand of the field.

“I’ve told you I was already finished, I can help you if you want,” Lena laughed as her friend began weaving a daisy chain from the weeds surrounding them.

“Oh yeah,” Sara said her eyebrows furrowing. She set the crown on top of Lena’s thigh who dutifully put it onto her head with all of the seriousness of a coronation. The girls snickered as the crown flopped to one side, slightly too big for the Luthor’s head.

“You’re pretty fucking good you know,” Sara stated suddenly breaking the quiet that had settled around them as Lena meticulously plucked grass and piled it up on the blonde’s back.

“At quidditch?” Lena questioned with a twist of her lips and an incredulous look, “Not really but thank you for sparing my feelings, it really is a nice gesture.”

Sara rolled her eyes, “will you just take the compliment I’m serious Luthor you got some raw skills.”

Lena rolled her eyes as her cheeks flushed slightly. “Well thank you Ms. Lance I appreciate the sentiment.” Lena watched as Sara distractedly pulled the petals off of the daisy in her hands.

“You know you’re going to rock these tryouts right? Alex Danvers would be out of her damn mind to pick anybody else over you.” Lena watched as a small grin made its way onto Sara’s face.

“Yeah?” she questioned as she looked up at the dark haired girl.

“Duh,” Lena said dutifully, “Like who else is even trying out for beater? That scrawny third year kid with the bright red hair? You’ve totally got this in the bag. And if by some great mistake you don’t make it, we can dye Alex’s hair green or beat her up or something.” Sara laughed at Lena’s speech and rolled over on her back to look at her for a few moments before standing up and offering the dark haired girl her hand so she could do the same.

“Thanks Lena, you’re not too bad yourself,” she laughed as they made their way back into the warmth of the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't worry I went crazy and definitely wrote 2 really long chapters


	8. Chapter 8

“Ooooh my god,” Sara said as she noisily slid on to the bench next to Lena who was startled enough to drop her piece of toast onto her plate. “Today is the day that I die, I am going to fall off my broom or take a bludger to the face or something else equally as embarrassing.”

“You will be fine,” Lena said folding her newspaper carefully and setting it onto the table next to her, “I promise you will absolutely kick butt, you’re Sara freaking Lance, so woman up and act like it,” Lena slapped her best friend on the shoulder and she seemed to puff up at her words.

“I’m Sara Lance I kick tryouts and eat ass for breakfast! I mean kick ass and eat tryouts for breakfast!” she corrected quickly as she slammed her head down on the table and Lena let out a laugh that was a bit louder than she normally let loose in public.

She could feel eyes on her down the table and she looked down to see the swish of a blonde ponytail turning quickly away from them; Lena frowned slightly but turned back to her bright red friend sitting next to her.

“I. Am. Going. To. Diiiiiiiie.” Sara bemoaned as she picked at her cereal that had gone soggy from sitting in front of her for too long.

“Alright anyone who is trying out for the team better be out on the pitch in 20 minutes!” came a rough bark from Alex Danvers who was now standing at the head of the table already dressed in her quidditch robes. A bright gold ‘C’ was embroidered on her right shoulder and she had her broom hoisted onto her shoulders. Maggie was right behind her already wearing her robes as well, but unlike her taller counterpart, Maggie was leaned up against the table munching on a bagel as she waited for her friend to finish talking.

The girls made their way to the broom shed to fetch Sara’s Nimbus 2006. The blonde in question was hopping in place and cracking her neck in preparation.

“Fly a lap with me?” She asked timidly to the dark haired girl next to her.

“I’m wearing a sweater and jeans,” Lena laughed at the girl who only pouted at her in response.

“Fine! Fine, one lap, I might even let you beat me.” Sara grinned as Lena gave in and she handed the taller girl her newest version of the Firebolt. The two girls mounted and took off around the pitch while everyone was still on the ground getting ready.

As they made their way back around to the stands where they started Lena hopped off and sat on the lowest level so she could hear everything that was happening while watching the tryouts. She wished Sara luck as she flew off to join the rest of the Gryffindors on the ground.

“All right!” Alex called as everyone gathered around them, “Chasers are up first!”

The chasers took to the sky in drill teams of three, carefully weaving in and out of formations and around the players scrimmaging for the defensive side. Lena winced as a tall lanky boy ran smack into a defender, but was impressed that the boy managed to keep a hold on the quaffle.

Lena watched with great intent as a pretty blonde girl she had never seen before artfully weaved in and around the defenders even doing a quick flipping maneuver to escape the defenseman who was pushing her particularly hard. She sent the quaffle through the far left hoop with a finesse that impressed her and Lena had been to every Quidditch World Cup for the past 6 years.

“I’m not gonna be that easy Jordan!” she called out to him cheerfully as the brunette boy smiled and playfully waved her off.

Lena watched the chasers slowly start to dwindle down as more and more of them proved unable to keep up, but her eyes never left the blonde for very long. She played with an ease that made it seem natural and easy to pull off some of the stunts she was doing and Lena knew from experience that they were not.

Eventually everyone settled to the ground and the only 2 spots that were open for chasers were filled by the pretty blonde and a lanky kid Lena recognized as Barry Allen.

Lena didn’t have time to focus too hard on the girl as the beaters came up to try out. There must have been fifteen of them in the air all fighting for the one open position on the team. Lena held her breath as she watched the tryouts unfold in front of her.

Some of the other contenders were good, great even if Lena was being honest, but no one compared to the drive that Sara was showing on her broom. The girl was on fire, flying with the confidence that Lena knew she had in her, she shook her head, she knew she had no reason to worry.

As they all touched down and Sara was given the position Lena saw the girl jump up into the air before hopping onto her broom and racing up to the stands barreling into Lena who was cheering for her the whole time.

“I told you you could do it, you were amazing,” Lena gushed with a huge grin. Sara’s cheeks were flushed from the wind and she let out a huge whoop as she threw her arms around Lena, her practice robes were soaked through and she stunk to high heavens but Lena was happy for her friend so she hugged her back fiercely.

She felt eyes on them again as she looked down and saw the blonde girl watching them from the ground.

“Who’s that girl?” Lena blurted before she could hold it back. She could feel the flush on her cheeks as she tried to look indifferent but Sara’s smirk told her she wasn’t doing a very good job.

“Who? Danvers?” She asked playfully as she looked down to where the blonde girl was still glancing up at them every so often as everyone was chatting and taking a break before commencing with the tryouts.

“No not Danvers the pretty blonde down there next to her, the really good chaser,” Lena said hurriedly trying to draw attention away from the fact that she had called the girl attractive.

Sara laughed, “Lena you do know there are 2 Danvers? That’s Alex’s little sister, and she has literally been in our year the entire time. I’m pretty sure you sat across from her in Arithmancy last year,” Sara said while giggling at the flustered girl.

“I highly doubt I sat anywhere near her, I think I would have remembered her,” Lena said gruffly looking at the girl over Sara’s shoulders who was talking animatedly to her apparent older sister.

“Oooooh Luthoooor, be careful sounds like you’ve got a teensy little crush on Kara Danvers, Alex will literally murder you in your sleep if you ever think about acting on itttt,” Lena grew bright red and smacked her on the shoulder.

“I do not have a crush Sara she’s a girl, I’m not, I’m not you know like that, I’m not-“

“A lesbian?” Sara laughed at her as she became a darker shade of red and struggled to complete full sentences, “It’s not a dirty word Lena,”

“I know!” she hissed quietly, still staring at the girl over her shoulder, “it’s just-“

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO ONE IS TRYING OUT,” the girls heard boom across the field. Alex was obviously seething.

“No one showed up to try out for seeker, which is weird because we turned away like thirty people last year, you’d think at least one of them would show up…” The boy Lena recognized as “Jordan” said to the angry captain.

“We can’t play Slytherin in three weeks without a fully trained seeker! What the sweet fuck are we going to do?” Alex was pacing angrily as she yelled at one of the veteran players to go find someone from last year that had tried out.

“She’ll do it!” Lena whipped around to see Sara calling down to Alex and the others while pointing at Lena.

“SARA,” Lena hissed pulling her to sit down on the bleachers next to her, her eyes were opened comically wide as the girl continued to shout.

“She’s great! I trained with her for like months before tryouts she’s a great seeker!”

Before either of them knew it Sara had pulled Lena off the bleachers with their brooms down onto the pitch and Sara dragged a squirming Lena in front of the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team.

“Luthor?” Alex questioned warily. The older girl brought her hand up to cover her eyes and rub at her temple, “Are you sure Lance? I need an A+ seeker after the train wreck that we were stuck with last year.”

“No!” Lena said at the same time as Sara let out a resounding “Yes!”

“I am literally wearing a sweater and my nice boots,” Lena said rounding on Sara who was giving her a shit eating grin. “Do not give me that look Sara,” she said warningly as the blonde girl began to pout.

“Princess doesn’t want to get her shoes dirty!” was jeered from somewhere behind them causing a breakout of laughter amongst the quidditch players surrounding her. Lena crossed her arms over her chest and gave Sara her best, ‘see what I’d have to put up with’ face.

“Lena pleeaaase, it’ll be fun! We can train hard and become pros and graduate and play for the Harpies,” Sara leaned in closer and whispered in her ear, “Besides, this would be like a totally perfect way to get to know little Danvers better. Platonically speaking of course.” Sara pulled back and threw her a wink as Lena went red in the face and cleared her throat.

“Fine. I will try out for you, but I warn you Danvers I am not as good as she is talking me up to be,” Lena said while slowly unwinding her scarf from her neck and throwing it at Sara who was wiggling her eyebrows at her.

“Just show me what you’ve got Luthor,” Alex said tiredly as she mounted her broom and shot up into the sky with a clipboard in her hand. “A little help Lance?”

“Gladly,” Sara called up to Alex grabbing her bat and joining some of the other defensemen in the sky.

Lena let out a shaky breath and mounted her broom slowly before ascending to meet everyone else.

“Let’s see what you’ve got Luthor!” Jordan called out as he released the quaffle and the snitch into the sky, the bludgers were already circling above them menacingly.

Lena dodged the chasers who were running formation drills to simulate a real game underneath her. Lena barrel rolled to the right as she saw a bludger come at her from the corner of her eye and rolled her eyes when she saw that it was Sara.

She weaved gracefully through the air dodging everything coming at her easily when she saw the flash of gold shoot behind Alex on the outer rim of the pitch.

Lena kicked it all into high gear as she focused in on the golden ball speeding faster and faster toward the ground. The chaser Jordan who was acting as her competition for the moment followed her quick movements and knocked into her sideways causing her to lose a bit of her balance. Lena pressed into his side harshly before pulling up completely and letting the boy crash into the side of the arena.

The snitch was nearly skimming the ground now as she held her arm out to reach for it. Almost, almost…

Before she knew it she was launching herself off of her broom and into the air as her fingers closed around the golden ball. She somersaulted a few times before landing in front of a pair of quidditch boots and seeing a hand reach down to help her up.

“Well if that performance was any inclination, I’d be bold enough to say welcome to the team Luthor,” said a melodious voice above Lena. Lena looked up to see the sun framing golden wavy hair and accentuating a chipper smile.

Of course it had to be Kara Danvers.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now we're getting somewhere ;))))) let me know what y'all think!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena is embarrassed. Kara is embarrassed. Sara is amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Long story short my computer is fried and won't be fixed until the new year so I wrote this gem on my phone, hopefully it's not too bad

Lena trudged her way up the stairs of the Gryffindor tower exhausted and caked with dirt from head to toe. She couldn’t believe she let Sara talk her into trying out for the Quidditch team, she couldn't believe that she'd actually made it. She felt a small smile creep its way onto her face as she remembered the thrill of dropping lower and lower to the ground in pursuit of the snitch and the shocked look of her new teammates when she'd regained her footing after her landing.

She pushed open her bedroom door and kicked off her ruined boots, she plodded quietly over to the bathroom door with every intention to take a shower in order to get rid of the mud trapped in her dark hair.

Lena slowly began to peel her ruined sweater off of her sweaty body. She tugged it up to her chin harshly trying to get the fabric that was stiff with mud over her head. The sweater did not want to budge, the Luthor began to panic until she heard a knock on her door and she sighed with relief.

“Come in!” She yelled through the sweater and thanking whatever deity that was watching over her that Sara had decided to come over. “I’m stuck and if I don't get out of these disgusting clothes in the next 2 minutes I'm going to have your head because it’s your bloody fault that they’re ruined in the first place!” She practically yelped as she floundered slightly with her arms stuck in the air.

She felt Sara’s hands grab the bottom of her sweater and pull it forcefully over her chin before being snagged once again on her nose. Lena bent at the knees and tried to wiggle her head out of the ruined material while Sara tugged upward, the sweater popped off of the dark haired girl forcefully enough to send them both spiraling to the floor.

Lena let out an oomph as she landed on top of the girl and got a face full of blonde hair. Lena looked down at the girl she was now straddling and stared at her for one, two, three seconds before realizing with horror that the girl underneath her may have been blonde, but she definitely was not Sara Lance.

“Oh my gosh Lena! I'm so sorry!” Kara managed to sputter out from her position underneath the Luthor girl. The blonde’s normally sunny disposition was clouded by the deep red flush that flooded her cheeks. “I just saw that you were in a bit of a pickle and I didn't want to leave you here, I mean, we’re teammates now and you were obviously panicking and-“

They were interrupted by the sound of Lena’s door thudding open again and Lena’s head snapped up to see Sara in the doorway looking shocked at the sight in front of her. Lena was half naked on the floor and underneath her was the blushing Danvers girl, both of them looked disheveled and slightly out of breath.

“Hello ladies,” Sara said slowly, “am I interrupting something?”

“No!” Both of the girls practically screeched as Lena scrambled off of the taller girl and used the dirty sweater to shield herself from the other two girls in the room.

“I should go,” Kara said in an octave higher than her normal vocal range, “congrats on making the team. To both of you.” She added hastily looking anywhere but at the two girls in front of her.

Sara quirked an eyebrow at a blushing Lena as Kara practically ran out of the room.

“Care to enlighten me on what was happening?” The blonde said cockily with a devilish smirk painting her features.

“I got stuck,” Lena said indignantly suddenly very focused on the dirt caught under her fingernails, “and I thought she was _you_ you jackass and she helped me get well unstuck I guess.” Lena sat stiffly and eyed Sara out of the corner of her eye as she sat on the edge of Lena’s bed.

“So let me get this straight,” Sara said slowly holding her hands out toward Lena in a reassuring gesture, “So you get stuck…”

“Yes.”

“Kara helps you get unstuck…”

“Yes.”

“So you try to thank her with sex…”

“Yes, WAIT I MEAN NO!” Lena groaned as Sara laughed at her loudly. The Luthor buried her face in her hands as she felt her cheeks take on a pink hue.

“It's not a bad thing if you like girls Lena, Kara is pretty easy on the eyes,” Sara said suggestively as she nudged the darker haired girl in the side with her elbow.

“Do you?” Lena asked timidly staring up at Sara from between the fingers that still covered her burning face.

“Like Kara? No. She's cute, but she's not my type. Plus it's like against every friend code ever to go after the girl your friend is into,” Sara said in all seriousness.

“I meant do you like girls you insufferable little demon,” Lena grouched with a swat to Sara’s thigh.

“A wise man once said that we’re all a little gay,” Sara said stroking her chin and giving Lena an intense stare before breaking her façade and busting a smarmy grin, “yes I like girls and I like guys, and I might even go for a centaur if they were my type, I'm pretty much down with anything.”

Lena rolled her eyes at the giggling girl at the end of her bed before launching herself at her and embracing her in a hug.

Sara fell back at the impact but hugged Lena back just as tight. The girls sat on the bed for a few moments before Lena pushed Sara off the end, causing her to land on her butt.

“Now get out of here! Because of you I smell like something the giant squid coughed up.”

 

  
Kara was walking around the edge of the lake and basking in the way the sun hit her face. She sighed as she tuned back in to the argument her friends were having over something extraordinarily dull like Wizard’s chess or…

“Just because he’s Merlin doesn't necessarily make him the best card! We all know that Dumbledore, The founders, AND Gwenog Jones are objectively better than Merlin. Or Circe for that matter,” James spat out rapidly.

“You’re only saying Gwenog Jones because you think she's hot. You don't even cheer for Holyhead!” Winn whined back at him.

 _Ah yes_ Kara thought to herself _chocolate frog cards._

The group had stopped and sat on a wall just off the path in front of the lake. Kara watched as the wind made the water ripple and the sun sparkle off of the moving surface, she giggled as she saw the giant squid sunbathing on the shore _you've got the right idea buddy_ …

“And another thing!” Winn started angrily

“Can we talk about anything else,” Kara groaned as she slid off the wall and sat on the soft grass in front of the boys.

James and Winn looked over as if they had just remembered she was present for the conversation and smiled sheepishly.

“I guess,” Winn groaned playfully, “what's up with your life, what's new and exciting in Kara Danvers land?”

Kara opened her mouth to speak but instead fell silent as she saw a mop of dark hair and the girl it belonged to plop down in front of a tree and pull out a book.

Kara meant to say “oh you know, same old same old, I'm excited for Quidditch season to start,” but instead what came out was, “What do you know about Lena Luthor?”

Kara tried to hide her small blush as the two boys turned to look at the girl in question staring intensely into a potions textbook. They turned back around with raised eyebrows to see their friend squirming in front of them.

“I know she's a Luthor,” James said slowly and pointedly, “and personally that's all I need to know.”

“She's… interesting,” Winn said as he poked James in the ribs roughly, “she spoke to me once in charms. She was nice enough I guess although I doubt she remembers my name.” Winn rubbed the back of his head as the trio continued to creep on the girl sitting underneath the tree.

“Oh! And she's dating that girl!” Winn said as they watched Sara practically skip over to Lena and drape herself across the Luthor’s lap while grabbing her book and tossing it down next to her.

“Dating?!” Kara nearly choked out as she watched the two interact. Now that Winn had said it she didn't realize how she didn't figure out sooner. They were always hanging out with each other, sometimes they hung all over each other. Kara remembered back to the day of the Quidditch trials when she had seen Sara race off to the bleachers after she had gotten her position on the team, straight into the arms off…

“Lena!” She heard Sara yell exasperatedly from across the field.

“I've never heard anyone besides themselves call them by their first names,” Winn said with a look of discomfort on his face, “if they aren't dating, I'm a mermaid’s uncle.”

Kara didn't know why she was so disappointed to stumble upon this realization she wasn't even Lena’s friend none of this was any of her business. _The closest I've ever gotten to Lena Luthor was_ \- her mind shut off mid thought as her eyes shot wide open and she let out a gasp.

“Sara must hate me,” she said with a tiny terrified whisper.

“Why would anyone hate you? You're like a puppy. Literal human sunshine,” James said with a laugh of confusion.

“I molested her girlfriend!”

 

 

Lena sat down looking what she hoped was causal as she pulled out her potions textbook and dutifully started to study. Or that's what she told herself.

Lena watched as Kara and her two friends sat across the lawn from where she was ‘studying’ for her upcoming quiz. They were laughing loudly, Lena could pick Kara’s laugh out from under the deep booms of the tall Ravenclaw boy that she thought was called John or James or something of the sort, and the inarticulate grunting that she recognized as the laughs of Winn, the chubby Hufflepuff boy who she sat next to in charms in the previous year.

Kara’s laugh danced across the beautiful day making the sun seem brighter and the grass seem greener. Lena bit her lip to contain her smile at the melody it provided.

Lena watched as Kara glanced toward the lake a couple of times, she was too far away to take notice if her gaze was directed at her. The sun caught her hair and made it shimmer every time she shifted and moved while talking animatedly to the boys in front of her.

She didn't hear Sara coming until she had sprawled across her lap and her eyes snapped back down from Kara to her potions book that was opened to the dedication page.

Sara laughed at the green eyed girl as she scrambled to cover up her creeping with a faint blush painting her cheeks.

“You could go talk to her you know,” Sara said as she took Lena’s book out of her hand and flung it on the ground next to them.

“I was reading that,” Lena said weakly as she attempted to maintain her cover.

Sara laughed loudly and Lena blushed ever harder.

“Use your words girly, you're never going to get into Danvers’ pants if you don't actually speak to her,” Sara snarked as Lena rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“It's not like she hasn't already seen me half naked,” the Luthor groused back at her causing Sara to snort.

“Lena!” The blonde cried scandalously causing the trio they were watching to turn around to see what the fuss was about.

Lena buried her face in her shirt as Sara laughed noisily at her friend’s misfortune.

Kara Danvers was going to cause more trouble for Lena than she had initially planned for. It was going to be a long Quidditch season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's excited for Quidditch season, I know I am :D


	10. chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow damn it has been a while but I am back! and this time armed with a working laptop, but anywho, I hope y'all enjoy!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit gets crazy

Quidditch practice was hell. Lena couldn’t remember the last time she had actually had a decent night’s sleep between the constant practicing and studying for classes, she was left exhausted and sore. She rubbed tiredly at her eyes as she sat at the foot of her bed revising her Transfiguration essay for what felt like the hundredth time. She looked over and saw Sara dozing against the bed post with her pen still tucked behind her ear.

 

Lena leaned over and flicked the snoozing girl on the edge of the nose causing her to startle and knock her head against the post she was previously resting on.

 

“Don’t get sloppy on me now Lance these are due tomorrow and we have practice in an hour. And we both know nothing is going to be done after practice except passing out,” Lena sighed tiredly as she watched the blonde girl rub the smarted end of her nose while scowling.

 

“We’ve redrafted and edited these essays a million times. Hell Lena, yours sounds like something that was literally copied out of the textbook, like I would accuse you of plagiarism if you didn’t use this type of vocabulary on a regular basis,” Sara whined snatching the Luthor’s essay out of her grip before Lena could stop her. “I mean c’mon, ‘wand velocity and maneuvers should be commensurate with the level of Transfiguration being performed, the equation shown in graph 13 shows the correspondence between the handling of the wand and the type of Transfiguration being practiced, with the most operose of these techniques being conjuration.’ I don’t even know what any of those words mean except for ‘the,’ ‘of,’ and ‘Transfiguration.’”

 

Lena snatched her paper back and grumbled something meekly as she felt Sara’s stare wear into her, maybe the blonde wasn’t exactly wrong about her over thinking the assignment. Lena sighed as she skimmed the paper that was already 6 inches of parchment longer than it should be. Sara let out a small cheer as the dark haired girl finally sighed dejectedly and rolled her essay up neatly and set it on her bed side table.

 

“Was that so bad?” Sara snarked as Lena rolled her eyes playfully.

 

“Yes it was absolutely tragic, once again my grades suffer at the hands of Sara Lance,” Lena let a small ‘oof’ as she felt Sara knock into her shoulder on the way to place her essay next to her own that lay on the nightstand.

 

“Don’t get your panties in a wad at me just because you haven’t seen your girlfriend in a whole 8 hours,” Sara said as she quickly dodged the incoming hand attempting to reach the back of her head.

 

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Lena squeaked as she chased the blonde down and off the bed. Lena could feel the faint flush on her face as she thought about Kara and ‘girlfriend’ in a synonymous context. The blonde girl made Quidditch practice the highlight of her day, even when she was flying through violent rain storms and getting knocked off of her broom by bludgers, she did it with a smile because it was nearly impossible to see any of the world’s negativity when so much of Kara’s positivity shown through in everything she did. Kara, Lena has deduced, is composed of extraordinarily high concentrations of the forces of pure goodness and being in her presence, let alone interacting with her, is addicting.

 

“Why don’t we go fly a bit before practice just for fun? If we have to fly another Last Man Up drill without having something actually enjoyable thrown in there, I might actually lose my cool.” Sara said while pulling her shoes back on from where they had laid at the foot at Lena’s bed. Lena blinked a few times to pull her mind out of its Kara induced reverie and focus on what Sara was trying to ask her.

 

“Yeah sure, let me just go change and I’ll meet you down there,” Lena didn’t actually want to fly any more than she had to, her back ached and her hands were now cramped from all of the rewrites, but she did need a nice break and maybe feeling the wind through her hair in a careless thoughtless manner was just what she needed to take some of the edge off of the stress.

 

She quickly pulled on her cleanest set of practice robes and laced up her boots so she could head down to the locker room and grab her gear for practice. The walk down to the pitch was crisp and cold, the only sound echoing into the twilight was the dead leaves crunching under Lena’s feet.

 

Lena let out a sigh as she reached the pitch and slid softly into the locker room, the sound of her boots was muffled by the dull red rug that one of the benches sat on. Lena turned the corner to get to her locker and nearly swallowed her tongue when she nearly bowled over the other two inhabitants she hadn’t known were there.

 

Maggie had Alex backed up against one of the lockers, kissing her earnestly but very gently in a way that made Lena think that this couldn’t have been the first time they had done it. Lena watched frozen as one of Alex’s hands that had been resting on the shorter girl’s neck moved slowly up to cup her face lovingly deepening the lip lock they were engaged in.

 

Lena internally panicked as she tried to decide how to handle the situation at hand and decided to try to sneak her way out and fake sick for this practice. She turned slowly on her heel trying to be discreet but all hopes of making it out of the locker room unnoticed were dashed when she stepped on the inside of one of her robes, sending her spiraling over the bench and into a wall of lockers causing one of the loudest most ungodly clanging noises Lena had ever heard, or maybe that was just her ears ringing? Lena groaned as she blinked and her vision swam in front of her, she could barely make out the feeling of blood trickling slowly behind her ear and down her neck as she looked up to see an enraged Alex Danvers towering over her and a hesitant almost scared looking Maggie following closely behind.

 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing Luthor?” Alex snarled as she stepped forward to stand even further over the girl on the floor. Maggie put a timid hand on the taller girl’s shoulder but it was immediately shrugged off and ignored. Lena could see the look of hurt mar Maggie’s features and her heart ached for the girl. “I sent out an owl 20 minutes ago, practice was cancelled for today!” Alex was nearly hissing her words and Lena could tell by the way that her throat bobbled up and down that she was trying to push her words through a lump that was forming.

 

“I- I was just-“

 

“You were just what? Disobeying direct orders? Trying to kiss ass? Do you think you’re better than this team Luthor? Little miss holier than thou wants to take practice and training into her own hands, do you think me unfit for this position?” Alex was spitting out her words faster than Lena could process them. She kept sputtering trying to come up with decent words to put both of the girls at ease.

 

“No! Alex! You’re a wonderful captain, I didn’t get the owl I’m so sorry I didn’t know-“ she tried to sputter out but Alex put a hand up effectively shutting her up.

 

“I don’t want to hear any apologies Lena I want one thing out of you. Nod if you understand.”

 

Lena nodded fervently trying to silently convey her support. She glanced back and forth between the girls above her. She could see the hopeless forlornness written on Maggie’s face and the sting of hurt in her eyes as she stood a few paces behind Alex. And Alex, well, she just looked terrifying, but Lena could see the fear masked so carefully in her eyes, Lena recognized the look from the one that painted her own expression so frequently.

 

“Good. You will forget everything you saw tonight. You will remember nothing tell absolutely no one and _if I find out you have,_ ” Alex stopped to stare down at her she could see the scared expression on the girl’s face but it didn’t deter her, “I will have you off of this team and your life ruined quicker than you can you say _Luthor._ ” Lena recoiled at the way her name was spat like a curse and sat mutely on the ground as she watched Maggie chase desperately after a disappearing Alex.

 

What had she just gotten herself into?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lena fidgeted nervously with the straps of her boots as she sat on the bench in the empty locker room. After finding her captain in a less than ideal position nearly a week ago, Quidditch had become the number one source of her slowly climbing anxiety. She knows Sara is starting to catch on; she had started showing up seconds before practice started and not even taking the time to change before heading back to the castle after it ended.

 

She also saw the looks Kara ad been giving her over the last week, the tension between Lena and her sister was thick enough to cut with a knife. She wasn’t surprised that the blonde looked like she wanted to talk to her every time they met eyes across the pitch. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t look the girl in her clear blue eyes while knowing that she had to hide what she imagined was one of her sister’s biggest secrets. Lena felt tremendously guilty for bearing witness to such a private moment that obviously has been a large source of grief for the eldest Danvers.

 

Lena tried to imagine being caught in a similar situation, she’d be mortified if someone walked in on her, eyes squeezed tightly as she’s backed up against the lockers, lips locked onto soft pink ones in front of her, her fingers threaded delicately through soft golden locks…

 

Lena felt her face heat up as her eyes sprang open half expecting to be met with the baby blue’s she had just unintentionally been dreaming of. The heat in her cheeks only increased when Sara raucously plopped onto the bench next to her.

 

“Stop daydreaming about your girlfriend and hurry up,” Sara jested, arm slinging over Lena’s shoulder, “We have Slytherin ass to kick.”

 

Lena felt her stomach flip as she resumed tying her one unlaced boot. All she wanted to do was get the match over with and go back to studying in the sanctuary of her room.

 

Sara seemed to notice the downward shift in the mood and she maneuvered herself in front Lena who had her eyes trained on the ground in front of her.

 

“Ok, what’s up”

 

Lena lifted her eyes slightly to meet the concerned gaze of her best friend.

 

“What if I fuck this all up,” Lena whispered, her hands gesturing vaguely around them.

 

Lena herself didn’t know what she was referring to, maybe everything, but she realized that once the words left her mouth she meant them with a fervor she didn’t know she possessed. All her life she was working toward making someone, _anyone,_ proud of her. And now she was here, in a moment where all eyes would be on her, people would be cheering for her and she didn’t know what to think.

 

Sara smiled and shook her head. She grabbed Lena’s hands and pulled her to her feet.

 

“Lena, even if we go out there and play the worst game of Quidditch in all of Hogwarts history, we are still celebrating tonight, do you want to know why?”

 

Lena nodded silently trying to swallow back the lump that was trying to form in her throat.

 

“Because we’re here! We made the team as second years! We have been working for this moment for months and no matter what the outcome of this game is we’re going to celebrate the work we’ve put in to get this far in the first place. And the work we’re gonna keep doing to get better.” Sara let out in one valiant breath.

 

Lena smiled and nodded along with the blonde, her nerves fading into giggles as she took in Sara’s goofy pep talk stance, feet comically wide beneath her while her hands rested on her hips.

 

The girls made their way out of the locker room and they were met with the roar of the entire student body waiting in the bleachers for the tip off. Lena’s eyes bulged as she saw the sea of scarlet and gold swallowing more than half of the bleachers in a cacophonous mass. Lena noticed signs in the crowd that read silly encouragements like “Here Come the Damn-vers Sisters!” and “Sawyer For Minister!” Lena let a small smile creep onto her face as the adrenaline started to kick in.

 

The players lined up in their positions around the referee and kicked off into the air, forming a hovering circle around the professor holding the Quaffle.

 

“I want a clean fair game, you hear me?” the teacher, Madam Hooch called out specifically eyeing the Slytherin beaters. Two real brutish looking buffoons that were her father’s friend’s sons, Lena recalled their names were Rory and Snart.

 

Lena was only half paying attention when she saw the Quaffle was up in the air. She nearly fell off her broom in surprise until Alex Danvers raced by and snatched it out of the air and took off down the pitch, Kara and Barry close behind.

 

The game had officially started. Lena was on the move keeping her eyes peeled for the tiny golden ball that would bring her house to victory if she could only get her hands on it…

 

She watched carefully as the Quaffle  was dropped by a Slytherin offense man and Kara swooped deftly under his broom to pick it up and speed off in the opposite direction. The blonde really did have a gift.

 

Lena nearly didn’t notice the round ferocious cannon ball coming straight for her head until she felt wind rush by her face and she came face to face with the crack of Sara’s bat sending it off and into the shoulder of a Slytherin chaser.

 

“Stop ogling and start catching the snitch already Luthor geez,” Sara shouted with a playful rolling of her eyes before speeding off toward the direction of the other bludger following Barry closely.

 

Lena huffed and shot up above the pitch hoping for a better angle at a bird’s eye view. She sat circling for a few moments before diving back low beneath the action.

 

Lena was about to head back up when she saw a flash of gold head off toward the Gryffindor goal posts. Lena sped toward Maggie and she heard the announcer in the back of her mind exclaiming that she may have spotted the snitch. Lena could see it making its way toward Maggie and she was coming in hot.

 

Until she wasn’t.

 

Lena felt an indescribable happiness start to bloom in the center of her chest and radiate out to the rest of her body, filling her limbs with a tingling sensation and making her smile uncontrollable. Where was she again?

 

She could make out the shape of Maggie’s concerned face slowly coming closer and closer to her, she seemed to be saying something but Lena wasn’t bothered with what it was.

 

After a few seconds, minutes? _Who cares time is a man-made concept_ Lena thought to herself dopily, Alex Danvers appeared at her side, and something gold and sparkly was floating right off to the left of her head. In the back of her mind Lena felt inclined to reach out and grab it, but the warm blankness that filled her made her limbs heavy and she stayed motionless on her broom.

 

“Alex Danvers,” she felt herself say lazily, she could feel the words coming but could do nothing to stop them, almost like someone was pulling them slowly from the confines of her chest and they were spilling out in front of her, “I’m half inclined to kill you as well, but I don’t think I want to spare the time.”

 

Lena felt herself giggle as she watched the rage bubble onto Alex’s face as her words cut into her captain’s normally cool persona.

 

“It’s so sad watching you run around like you’re something important when in reality, you’re nothing but an abomination, keeping the company of the filthy and tainted. My oh my how proud you are but you. Are. Nothing.” Lena nearly sang as she twirled delicate circles around the girl and the few other members of her team that were congregating around them to inspect the commotion. She could feel the burn of blue eyes on her but she didn’t turn, she didn’t really care.

 

The tingling was intensifying with every word she spoke. The blankness like a blanket keeping her warm and punch drunk, wrapped up in her own little world.

 

“But this isn’t what I had in mind for the first spectacle no, for this trick I’m going to make a traitor disappear!” Lena felt herself announce brazenly. She smiled and smiled as the wind whipped on her face.

 

For some reason the wind was whipping faster and faster around her face picking up her stray hairs that had fallen out of her ponytail and making them fly haphazardly behind her.

 

Lena looked down and finally realized she was falling, hurtling toward the earth faster than she thought herself capable. All she could do was smile and close her eyes until she felt a crashing force and then, everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit continues to get crazy


	11. chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shit still gettin crazy

“Nasty fall she took, I can’t believe something like this happened on school grounds. Do you think…?”

 

“Come now Poppy, don’t you think that was the first theory that I checked into? I made the trip myself, he’s still there, still refusing to speak with anyone…”

 

“What are we to tell the girl’s parents? The student body? She nearly died!”

 

Lena felt herself slowly roll in and out of consciousness as she tried to pay attention to the voices speaking above her. Her eyelids were heavy, her body felt like she was being compressed, like the entire force of gravity had realigned itself to focus solely on Lena Luthor.

 

Lena tried to chase the sounds floating around her but the effort exhausted her, causing her to fade back into the blackness of a dreamless sleep.

 

The next time Lena drifted back to the surface of subtle awareness she heard Sara speaking softly.

 

“I got you a basket of chocolate frogs but I’m not gonna lie, I’ve already eaten almost half of them,” Lena could hear the somber tone to the girls words and she tried to reach out and grab her hand, but Lena was frozen, still not fully out of the grips of the currents that were keeping her under.

 

“So if you want any of this candy you’re going to have to wake up pretty soon and force me to stop, you and I both know restraining myself isn’t exactly my strong suit,” Lena heard Sara give out a watery laugh before slowly sinking back beneath the surface, her body weighted down by her fatigue.

 

The next time Lena heard voices she was finally able to crack open an eye. Despite the obvious presence of low lighting, everything seemed too bright. Lena saw the orange lights of the candles sweeping over everything overwhelming her sensitive vision. She squinted and saw an outline of a figure sitting slumped over in the chair at her bedside. Where was she?

 

She looked further around and took in her surroundings, she was in the infirmary. Lena let her sensitive eyes adjust before she dragged them slowly back to the sleeping body next to her.

 

“Kara?” She heard the scratch in her voice from her unused vocal chords and winced as she became suddenly aware of the dryness suffocating her.

 

The blonde shifted and opened her eyes as Lena erupted into a coughing fit. Kara blinked a few moments before scrambling for the water cup that sat on the counter by Lena’s bed. She led it to the dark haired girl’s chapped lips and let her drink.

 

“Hey, Lena slow down it’s ok,” Kara said patting the girl’s back as she sputtered around the water she was now choking on.

 

Kara waited until the coughing subsided before she helped the girl lay back down on the stiff infirmary bed.

 

“What happened?” Lena eventually rasped watching Kara fuss over her, pulling the blankets up Lena’s shivering body and brushing the stray hairs that fell on her face out of the way.

 

The blonde didn’t quite meet Lena’s eyes as she opened her mouth and closed it a few times, searching for words that didn’t seem to be coming. The darker haired girl reached out to grab the blonde’s hands that she was nervously wringing in her lap

 

“Someone… cursed you. At the match. No one knows how they did it Lena I’m so sorry they’re still looking, Dumbledore-“

 

“Dumbledore is looking into it?” Lena interrupted incredulously. “Why is he looking into it? What did I get hit with? Kara why can’t remember any of the game?”

 

“Someone was at the game hiding in the crowd. They put you under the imperius curse, which I didn’t think was possible on school grounds, and I heard Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey whispering they tried to tie it back to your brother but I don’t think anything turned up.”

 

Lena let her words sink in. An unforgivable curse cast on Hogwarts grounds? How? Why her? Lex would never… would he?

 

Lena felt sick to her stomach as a chill creeped its way down her neck. Lex was trying to kill her. For some reason her brother, the only member of her family that she had held dear, had somehow come to the conclusion that her life no longer held any value to him. That she was now expendable. What had she done?

 

Lena blanched.

 

What had she done while she was under the influence of the curse?

 

She was brought out of her dissociated state by a pick-up in volume of Kara’s rambling. 

 

“Oh crap I was supposed to let Madam Pomfrey know when you woke up! She’s gonna be livid I-“

 

“Kara” Lena said soothingly tightening her grip on the hand she was still holding, “It’s ok, and it’s late. I’m sure whatever potion Madam Pomfrey wants to shove down my throat can wait until morning. I’d prefer it actually,” Lena said with a forced smile.

 

Kara nodded as her cheeks flushed a bit, “I hadn’t realized how late it had gotten.”

 

Lena looked out the window opposite her bed and noticed Kara was right, the moon was already high in the sky cast a luminous glow on the towers outside the infirmary.

 

“Why are you still here? It’s well past curfew I’d imagine,” Lena whispered with her eyes trained on Kara in the soft light of the candles.

 

The blonde smiled softly at the Luthor’s wide vulnerable eyes that she was trying to hide behind a sarcastic smile, but Kara could see the exhaustion making her mask slip.

 

“I must have dozed off,” the blonde said softly, “right after,” she cleared her throat uncomfortably causing Lena to cock a perfect eyebrow at her, “we finally convinced your girlfriend to go to bed. I’ll go get her for you but she had been down here sleeping in the same chair for a few days and she looked like she needed a shower. And a good night’s sleep in a bed.” Kara was rambling but Lena had stopped listening halfway through her speech.

 

“Girlfriend?” Lena squeaked feeling her cheeks flood with heat. Who in the sweet hell did Kara Danvers think she was involved with?

 

“Yeah?” the blonde said hesitantly eyeing the flustered girl, were they not out yet? “Sara?”

 

Lena blinked once, twice, and then she started giggling like a maniac. She could feel the crazed smile taking over her face as her giggles turned into full blown belly laughs racking her frame causing the bed beneath her to shake.

 

“Sara’s, not,” Lena choked out around laughter trying desperately to wipe all of the tears now streaking down her face off of her cheeks, “Sara is definitely not my girlfriend.”

 

Lena almost burst into another round of raucous laughter when she saw the look of utter confusion overtake the taller girl’s face.

 

“Really?” Kara questioned disbelievingly, “I’m pretty sure everyone is convinced otherwise. Probably even professor Binns has noticed and he is literally dead.”

 

“The ghost of professor Binns thinks that Sara Lance and I are an item?” Lena said incredulously throwing a flirty grin at the blonde causing her cheeks to tinge pink.

 

“Oh yeah, he’s the one that started the rumor in the first place,” Kara quipped back quickly.

 

Lena felt her body relax into the bed as the playful banter flowed easily between the two girls, the darker haired girl’s mind was at ease for what felt like the first time in forever.

 

“So how is it that you convinced Madam Pomfrey to let you stay by my bedside? Was it bribery? Blackmail? Ooh, I bet you threatened her. You definitely strike me as a curse now ask questions later type of gal.” Lena watched as Kara rolled her eyes at her inquisition.

 

“Actually, having a sister as a prefect means you can bend the rules a bit when the situation calls for it,” she said cheekily buffing her nails on her shoulder like she had gotten away with the heist of the century. “Speaking of which Alex should be done with her rounds by now…”

 

As soon as the words had left Kara’s mouth Lena saw the large oak double doors to the infirmary silently swing open to reveal an exhausted looking Alex Danvers trudging in. Lena cocked an eyebrow as the Gryffindor prefect threw herself into the chair next to Kara’s.

 

“Of course the one time a month I have patrol in the dungeons two Slytherin first years are off in a corridor trying to duel each other. Honestly I don’t know what they planned on doing I’m sure the only spells they know are Wingardium Leviosa and the color changing charm. What were they going to do levitate each other to death? Honestly”

 

Lena watched with curiosity as Alex picked at her nails and pretended to act exasperated. Lena looked over to see Kara standing from her chair and clearing her throat.

 

“I’m going to go grab a snack… anyone want anything?” Kara said nervously, her eyes were glancing back and forth between her sister and the Luthor enough times to make Lena dizzy just watching her.

 

At the mention of food Lena felt her stomach let a resounding growl and she threw her hand on top of it to muffle the noise. Lena rolled her eyes as Kara snickered at her from behind her hand.

 

“It’s ok Lena you haven’t eaten in a few days, I’ll grab you a sandwich on the way out.”

 

With that the two other girls watched Kara skip away and slide quietly out of the infirmary before turning to face each other awkwardly.

 

“She likes visiting the kitchen to catch up with the House Elves,” Alex said nonchalantly nodding off in the direction her sister had just disappeared in.

 

Lena felt a small smile pull at the edges of her lips, of course she did, that was just so _Kara_.

 

The two fell back into silence as Alex opened and closed her mouth; Lena noticed she kind of looked like a fish.

 

“I talked to her,” Alex whispered so softly Lena would have missed it had it not been deathly silent. Lena waited with wide eyes and baited breath for the older girl to continue.

 

“I talked to Kara and told her everything about, about what happened in the locker room. And how I had been, well, questioning some things as of lately.” Lena nodded and urged Alex to continue, “And she was… amazing as always. I mean when isn’t Kara a ray of human sunshine?” Alex said with a chuckle.

 

“That’s great Alex,” Lena said genuinely, she was happy that Alex knew that she had people that supported her and loved her.

 

“I also told her about my… less than friendly approach to handling you catching me in that position,” Lena’s eyebrows shot into her hairline as Alex fidgeted with her hands in her lap, “And she helped me come to a conclusion.”

 

“What might that have been?” Lena asked quietly, Alex looked up from her lap and met Lena’s eyes.

 

“That I may have been a massive dick.”

 

Lena let her lips tug into a grin as Alex laughed sheepishly and rubbed at the back of her head mussing up her short brown locks.

 

“And that you deserved an apology for my freak out, I don’t like… not being in control. And the times I spend with Maggie, like that, are the most out of control that I’ve ever felt in my life. I need steps and methods and routines and I need to know the outcome of situations before I get myself into them and with Maggie it’s always more make it up as I go.” Lena watched as Alex’s eyes glassed over with unshed tears, “And then you came in and I felt like everything was just flying out of my grip and I, I lost it. Everything I said and did was totally uncalled for and I don’t know if you’ll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me-“

 

“Of course I do,” Lena scoffed with a tiny playful eyeroll, “I have no doubt in my mind that I would have reacted in a similar manner when faced with something like that, I just wanted you to know that you could trust me. And that I would never think less of you for something like that.”

 

Alex smiled and cast her gaze to her hands resting in her lap.

 

She brought her eyes back up to meet the tired gaze of the Luthor from her hospital bed.

 

“And I know that the words you said out on the pitch weren’t your own, I hold no animosity toward you for that. If anything it makes me want to catch the bastard that cursed you even more,” Alex muttered murderously.

 

Lena blinked as memories of the game started to slowly come back to her. It was an odd sensation, like remembering a story that someone had told you a long time ago. The memories felt foreign in her head like they didn’t belong to her.

“What happened when I fell? Did I just hit the ground and knock myself out? Shouldn’t I be dead?” Lena questioned rapidly. She wanted some sort of clue as to who was using her as a human sock puppet. Who had violated her mind and used her body against her will.

 

“Kara actually flew into you and knocked you into the side of the bleachers before you hit the ground. I think she grabbed you and your broom before touching down and rushing off to well, here,” Alex said hastily, her eyes focused on something just behind Lena.

 

The Luthor nodded quietly and scrunched her eyebrows trying to remember. The girls fell back into a thick silence that Alex eventually broke.

 

“I’m sorry for using your name as an insult in the locker room,” she said quietly not meeting Lena’s gaze, “I know from experience family can be a touchy subject but you, you have been nothing but nice. And driven. And determined to claw your way out from under the weight of that name and I just threw it in your face, and for that I am truly sorry.”

 

Lena grinned and reached out to playfully shove the Prefect’s shoulder.

 

“Don’t worry about it Danvers, just don’t go getting soft on me.”

 

As the two continued to talk Kara burst through the doors with two plates in her arms.

 

On one was a stack of pancakes so tall that it teetered when she walked and on the other was what looked to be a ham and cheese sandwich and an apple.

 

Lena’s eyes widened comically as the girl gave her the sandwich plate and began tucking into her pancakes without so much as a word. Alex laughed as she watched Lena’s face as she took in the sight of Kara after 8 hours without food. She was sucking down pancakes so quickly they were both convinced she wasn’t chewing them.

 

Lena ate about half of her sandwich before her stomach started protesting and she stuck with sipping on her water. Lena opened her mouth to ask where Kara put it all when she heard the double doors bang open causing the three girls to turn and see a frantic Madam Pomfrey.

 

“How come no one told me she was awake after I specifically asked you to inform me! This girl needs her healing draught right away!”

 

Kara giggled sheepishly as she watched Lena bury her face in her pillow and groan. She was not prepared to choke down the eye of newt or wolfsbane or whatever was inevitably in that draught.

 

Why do these things always happen to her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to Sam @SpicyCheese for being a great beta :-) thank you all for reading let me know what y'all think!


	12. chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time jump, donuts, and crying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm suuuuper sorry for being MIA I've been having a really rough time dealing with some things and I got down and out on myself and my writing and my life in general but I'm back hopefully for good, I swear I'm going to finish this story no matter how long it takes me, if not for the wonderful people who have stuck by it then for myself because I really do love the turns these characters have been making. Anyways sorry for my rant I hope the chapter was worth the wait and I will be updating sooner than last time for sure! (this is unedited but I wanted it up ASAP bc I didn't want to wait any longer)

The Great Hall was in complete chaos. Maroon and Gold confetti littered the untouched table as the Gryffindor’s raucously celebrated the first House Cup victory in 50 years, or at least that’s what some fourth year had screamed in Lena’s ear when the win had been announced.

Sara nudged Lena in the ribs and gave her a smug smirk as she gestured to the party around them, seemingly saying _can you believe this?_ and Lena couldn’t help but feel giddy as well.

Gryffindor had, per usual, been lightyears behind the other three houses in the competition right up until the start of Quidditch season. With their spectacular loss of the first match against Slytherin, no one had any hopes of even passing Hufflepuff to secure the third place spot.

Until the Ravenclaw game the following week.

The attack during the match hadn’t just ignited a fire within Lena, but the entire Quidditch team. It probably didn’t help that Alex had given a long winded speech about making every game personal after someone had come after one of their own (Lena definitely didn’t tear up, nope, it really was just particularly dusty that afternoon).

Practice every other day of the week became practice every day, twice a day, and if Lena was being honest, the distraction probably stopped her from falling apart at the seams after her weekend in the infirmary. It was a lot easier on her mind to focus on running plays until she sagged with exhaustion than her utter devastation at the realization that her brother had deemed her life expendable.

When the following week and subsequently the next match rolled around, the crowd was deathly silent as Lee Jordan announced the final score.

475-0.

The student body erupted into madness, the cacophony was deafening but Lena took no notice because Sara and Kara had hoisted her onto their shoulders while she still gripped the snitch tightly in her hand and carried her all the way back to the common room, where the cheers of the crowd turned into the roar of a victory party.

Professor McGonagall herself had called it the Quidditch Renaissance, and pretty soon the points from all of the wins had piled up until they were neck and neck with Slytherin.

Lena could still remember the boom of the crowd and the fear pumping through her as Madam Hooch released the Quaffle, but the terror evaporated as soon as she saw a flash of gold behind the head of a brutish Slytherin chaser.

The match was over in a record breaking 45 seconds.

Lena brought herself back to the present day admiring once again just how jubilant her house was at the victory when she saw a flash of blonde plop down into the seat across from her. The Luthor’s heart threatened to burst out of her chest as Kara shot her a toothy grin between bites of what looked to be a giant slice of pizza.

They watched as a group of boys hoisted Alex, Maggie, and several other of her teammates into the air on their shoulders and migrated to what Lena assumed was a massive party that would last into the wee hours of the morning.

Through the crowd Lena could see Maxwell and his group of idiot disciples moping across the hall. Lena let a small grin of satisfaction decorate her features. The boy had become an annoying fixture at her side after the attack, proclaiming all the while that it was his duty to bring the criminal that tried to kill her to justice. It was obvious to just about everyone but the professors that the chivalry he was proclaiming was a hoax, he and the rest of his crew used it as a flimsy excuse to practically stalk Lena through the halls. Lena had rather quickly developed a habit of rolling her eyes every time Lord’s mouth so much as shifted.

The dark haired girl turned back to ask Sara if she wanted to head up to the celebration in the common room only to find her, well, _preoccupied_ with some skinny third year boy with a close cropped hair cut.

Lena let out a bark of a laugh and shook her head as Kara seemed to take notice of them and turn a brilliant shade of red.

Kara picked up her plate and gave a conspiratorial wink as she grabbed Lena’s hand and pulled her out of the wad of people inhabiting the Great Hall.

The air in the hallway was cool on Lena’s face as they raced down the corridor giggling, still high on the win. They stopped abruptly around a corner and doubled over laughing even harder.

Lena’s stomach fluttered as she watched the blonde smiling at her and wiping tears from her eyes.

“I’m sorry for dragging you out of there, it was just _so loud,_ ” Kara snickered as they continued walking through the castle.

“There are worse ways I can imagine spending the last night of the semester,” Lena said quietly as she swayed their still linked hands between them.

“And that party is going to be a mess, I don’t know if I can handle that particular brand of chaos right now”

Lena watched as Kara stared down at the floor suddenly self-conscious and reluctantly allowed their hands to part as the blonde reached up to nervously push at her glasses.

“But we can go! If you want to, to the party I mean, because wow! I mean golly it’s practically another Quidditch party and you deserve the recognition you were so good this season!” Kara rambled with a renewed further, “And I overheard like five different boys talking about wanting to talk to you and, I mean – why wouldn’t they you’re so nice and good at everything an-“

“Kara!” Lena laughed and rejoined their hands effectively shutting down her rambling. The blonde sheepishly smiled back at her and squeezed lightly at Lena’s hand.

“Do you trust me?” the dark haired girl asked. Kara’s face turned worried for half a second before catching the conspiratorial gleam in Lena’s green eyes.

Lena for her part was trying her damnedest to keep her face solemn as she waited for Kara’s answer, but she could feel the small smile breaking its way through. It was nearly impossible not to when the blonde was looking at her like _that._

“Always,” Kara breathed as some of the redness from earlier returned to her cheeks.

“Then c’mon, I wanna show you something.”

The two girls walked down the stairs and into the mugginess of the spring night. Lena was a few steps ahead of Kara pulling her playfully in the direction she wanted to go, the soggy grass mushed underneath their steps leaving a trail of wet footprints behind them.

They trudged their way down to the Quidditch pitch, Lena flicked on the stadium lights as they walked through the locker room and onto the field.

The pair walked into the middle of the arena and Lena tugged Kara’s hand to signal to sit down but the blonde untangled their hands and instead pulled her wand out of her robes.

Lena watched quizzically as the blonde muttered under her breath and waved her wand over the swatch of grass that they had stopped over. The dark haired girl sat mystified as the water droplets from the grass rose delicately through the air and into the tip of Kara’s wand.

Lena knelt down and ran her hand over the now dry grass and giggled as Kara sprawled out next to her, the plate of pastries and pizza she had been holding now rested on her chest as she stared up at the brightly lit night sky.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Lena asked with her fingers still tangled in the soft grass of the pitch. That spell definitely wasn’t something that they had been taught how to do in second year charms.

“Uh, perks of having an older sister?” Kara looked nervous as she answered, choosing to keep her eyes glued to the sky instead of meeting the Luthor’s inquisitive gaze and fiddling with the crust of a freshly demolished slice of pepperoni.

Lena wasn’t quite satisfied with the answer but laid down next to Kara anyway.

The two stared up at the stars coated in a thick blanket of silence. Lena opened her mouth a few times but words escaped her. Kara smiled to herself as she watched Lena struggle but drew no attention to her awareness of the other girl’s inability to start a conversation.

Lena felt a nudge against her folded arms and saw that Kara was offering her a donut as the blonde happily chewed on her own.

“I’m not taking your food Kara”

“Why not? I didn’t see you eat before we left?”

“I got a few bites in, besides I’m not gonna take your foo-umph”

Lena stared wide eyed down the bridge of her nose where a large powdered donut now sat wedged into her mouth, sprinkling down what Lena knew would soon be a sticky mess around her lips and chin.

“Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much sometimes?” Kara asked with a smirk Lena didn’t know she was capable of.  Lena shook her head no with the donut still sticking out of her mouth.

“Well you do, and that’s coming from someone who habitually rambles”

Kara let out a full belly laugh as Lena took the donut out of her mouth and excess powdered sugar rained down and covered her face.

Lena felt her lower lip poke out into a pout as an ill-timed sneeze sent the sugar flying off of her face and into a small dust cloud. Kara wiped uselessly at the tears that were now streaming down her face while trying to help Lena sit up properly so she wouldn’t inhale any of the sugar.

“It’s not funny,” Lena whined wiping her face on the sleeve of her robes and groaned in disdain at the white streak that it left behind.

“It’s pretty funny,” Lena stuck her bottom lip out further at Kara’s words.

“C’mon Lena, cheer up we’re celebrating! This is a pout free zone so turn that frown upside down and eat your donut,”

Lena lifted an eyebrow as Kara raised her half eaten donut like a goblet and raucously cleared her throat

“I would like to propose a toast,” The blonde announced her half eaten donut now held high above her head as if it were actually some sort of ceremonial goblet; Lena raised her own in the air to join the blonde’s.

“To new friends! There’s no one else I would’ve liked to win the house cup with, and there’s no one else I would want as a teammate, so to you Lena Luthor, I raise my jelly-filled. Here here!”

Lena knew the speech was supposed to be silly, a playful snippet spoken out of the punch drunkenness they both felt in their victory, but she couldn’t help the tears that sprung to the corners of her eyes. Maybe it was the stress from the year finally catching up with her, or maybe it was just that she was finally letting her carefully bottled emotions spill over, but in no time flat Lena had hot tears silently dripping down her cheeks.

Kara seemed to noticed and immediately sat back down much closer to Lena than she had been, practically on her lap, and ran a soothing hand down her back.

“What’s wrong? Was it something I said? Oh god Lena I am so sorry I probably said something to offend you I am so so sorry, oh gosh is there-“

“Kara” Lena hiccupped as she turned her head and leaned it onto the taller girl’s shoulder, “I’m not upset at you.” Lena sighed and wiped the tears that had fallen off of her cheeks and turned a little so she could see Kara’s face, “It’s just, no one’s ever been so blatantly nice to me before”

Kara frowned at that and pulled back a little bit so their noses were a hair’s length apart.

“Well you’d better get used to it,” she whispered softly, catching a stray tear on the pad of her fingertip, “You deserve all the kindness in the world.”

Lena’s breath hitched as she watched Kara’s eyes glance briefly down at her lips and her tongue darted out subconsciously to wet them. If she just leaned half a centimeter forward she would be-

“Kara! What are y’all doing out here the party’s up in the common room come on!”

Alex was at the entrance across the field with a couple of other Gryffindors who were grabbing their backpacks out of their lockers last minute, they were undoubtedly filled with some sort of magically enhanced alcohol that was going to turn the party from wild to a full on rave.

Lena looked back at Kara who had shuffled back a few inches from her, her cheeks painted scarlet and her bottom lip tucked securely behind her teeth.

“I guess that’s our cue” Lena said with a laugh, trying to convey to Kara that everything was alright even though the swirling pit in Lena’s stomach wanted to say otherwise.

Kara’s smile returned at her words though and for now, her brilliant grin was enough to calm the storm that had taken up residence in her head.

 

 

 

 

Lena could feel her pulse pounding behind her eyes as she tried to sleep to no avail. The pounding of the train on the tracks was ruthless in her sensitive ears.

 _Note to self_ she thought _never stay up all night on the last night of the year ever again._

Sara preoccupied herself with throwing tiny crumpled up balls of parchment into her hair as she lay sprawled out on the bench across from her.

“I can feel that you know” Lena groaned as another piece of paper landed on her forehead instead of in her hair.

“You never told me where you and the happier Danvers sister disappeared to last niiiight” Sara sang loftily while shooting another piece of paper right into Lena’s open mouth.

The dark haired girl sat up and spat the paper out disgustedly, “I thought you were too _busy_ to notice that I had gone anywhere,” she said wiping her tongue off on the sleeve of her muggle shirt.

Sara made a face and ripped another corner off of the piece of paper in her hands, “He wasn’t _that_ distracting” she said sourly, “And you’re avoiding my question.”

Lena sighed and flicked her hair in the blonde’s direction, sending the multitude of paper balls flying directly at her face.

“We just went out to the pitch to talk. No big deal” _and we almost kissed I think_ Lena wanted to say _and I think I really really wouldn’t have minded._

“Is that what you kids call it these days?” Sara was grinning, kidding obviously but Lena was running on little to no sleep and without the distraction of school work and Quidditch to ease her frantic mind.

“Will you quit it with the innuendos Sara I’ve told you a billion times I’m NOT gay and I DON’T like Kara and even if I ever did I could never do anything about it but I don’t and I’m not so it doesn’t matter anyway so drop it!” Lena was panting and Sara’s eyes were wide at her outburst. Lena felt her stomach drop into the tips of her toes as Sara swallowed roughly and sat up straighter than Lena had ever seen.

“I like girls Lena”

Sara still wasn’t looking at her, her eyes were trained stoically out the window, all sign of emotion wiped cleanly from her face, _we’re similar in that way_ Lena thought, _throwing up defenses at the first sign of unrest_.

“And I’m not ashamed of that, I was for a while but that’s just not who I am. I don’t want to hide that part of who I am, but sometimes I can’t help feeling uncomfortable in my own skin.”

“Sara-“ Lena started hoarsely

“Let me finish” Sara was looking at her now, she still had the eerily calm mask of indifference plastered to her face and it was becoming too much for the dark haired girl to handle, but she nodded anyways.

“Every time I say something like that, it’s because I want you to know its ok for you to talk about anything or anyone with me. I never really had that when I was figuring all of my shit out and looking back on it now it would have saved me a lot of grief and a lot of self-loathing. I’m not trying to push my sexuality onto you, so if you want me to stop I’ll stop, but talking about liking girls and shit just makes me feel like how I feel is normal you know? Like talking about it and having fun with it makes it feel valid and ok and I know I’m a confident badass with looks for days but I still need some reassurance sometimes, so _please_ don’t take that away from me.” It was Sara’s turn to be winded from her speech and she finally let her gaze reach Lena’s eyes again.

Before Sara could blink she had a lapful of sobbing Luthor clinging to her middle and soaking her t shirt with her tears.

“I-I’m s-so s-s-sorry” Lena cried into her lap heaving violently enough to make Sara worried that she might make herself sick. “Y-you’re valid and perfect and my b-best friend and I love you s-so much I’m so sorry”

Sara shushed her and stroked her hair as Lena finally let herself cry the heavy tears that had been weighing her down all year. Tears for being made into a puppet by one of her brother’s lackeys, tears for the weight of her name even after her brother had tried to kill her, tears for the stress of maintaining her grades and her Quidditch training, tears for the way she felt under the disgusting leers of Maxwell Lord and his friends, tears for the girl she could never have despite so very _badly_ wanting her, tears for the friend that she hurt and the house she had to return to and for the way her mother’s unwavering gaze made her feel about her body and her thoughts and the choices that she made.

“I don’t know what to do I want her so badly but I think my m-mother would have me-“ Lena choked harshly on a sob as she burrowed further into Sara’s lap, “killed, and I don’t even want to imagine w-what would h-happen to h-her.”

Sara said nothing as she continued to stroke Lena’s hair letting her unleash haggard pain filled cries into the confines of the otherwise silent train car.

As Lena’s cries began to slow and her heaving shoulders settled into a light shudder Sara pulled the scared girl more fully into her and held tightly onto her hand.

“She’d have to get through me first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of supercorp but you can best believe that when I say slow burn I mean super slow burn so buckle up pals. Lemme know what y'all think! Hit me with ideas and suggestions and just come yell at me in general on tumblr @luthorsandsupers


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tropes on tropes on tropes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back again lovelies thanks for sticking with me even though my updating schedule is literally the worst :-)))

“Dad?”

Lena hesitated in the doorway of Lionel’s study, knowing that if he was in there it probably wasn’t the best time to disturb him. The letter in her hands crinkled in protest as she gripped at the edges waiting for the mahogany doors to open up.

Lena sighed as she knocked lightly, she would have asked Lillian but she was away on some top secret business trip for the company and Lena came to the conclusion that she couldn’t very well leave without telling anyone, so she waited.

Lena let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding when the sound of heavy footsteps echoed throughout the office and moments later the door swung open.

“There’s my girl! When did you get back? Those terms are just getting longer and longer.”

Maybe she could have left without telling anyone.

“I’ve been home for two months dad.”

Lionel looked down at her and had the decency to look sheepish as he ran a hand through his sandy hair that was quickly becoming more grey than blonde.

But at least he still had all of it which is more than she could say for Lex.

His suit was wrinkled, telling Lena he probably hasn’t changed out of it since yesterday. It wasn’t a rare occurrence for Lionel to work through the night, ever since Lex’s arrest the company had been in turmoil, investors dropping, and the Ministry revoking more licenses for products than granting them.

Lena was just grateful she couldn’t smell any scotch on his breath. Alcohol never brought out the best in any of the Luthors.

“Sorry sweetheart, you know how the schedule has been since LuthorCorp picked up the new Belgian investors, it’s even more hectic than usual, and that’s coming from the man who didn’t think it was possible to be any busier.” Lionel smiled and ruffled the top of Lena’s head, leaving her swatting at his large hands as they messed up her hair. For the first time since she got home Lena felt her lips tug into a small genuine smile.

“It’s ok, I know you’re busy, I just came to ask you a quick question.” She handed the letter over to him to look over as she moved inside the study and sat in her favorite armchair in the corner of the room.

“My friend Kara’s mother works as a healer and researcher at St. Mungo’s and Kara wrote me and told me that she offered to let us see what she gets to do every day, apparently Kara mentioned that I found healing magic fascinating, so really I was just wondering if I could spend the rest of the summer with the Danvers?” Lena managed to get everything out in one quick breath leaving her pulling in a large gulp of air into her lungs as Lionel studied the letter.

“I thought you wanted to be a Quidditch player pumpkin? You’ve certainly been training like it.”

Lena felt her head dip slightly, her mother hadn’t been pleased when she came home with more muscle mass than she left with.

_For Merlin’s sake Lena, no boy is going to want to date a girl with arms like that. Maybe you should focus more on your studies next year._

“Just trying to keep my options open.”

Lionel nodded and took the glasses that had been perched on his nose off and stuck them into the pocket of his coat.

“I think it’s a great opportunity sweetheart, you know I actually knew Jeremiah Danvers back during our time at school, good family, can’t say as much for the people he surrounded himself with though.”

Lena felt her jaw tighten as she resisted the urge to snap back with a scathing comment about the type of company _this_ family kept but she dutifully kept her mouth shut.

“Well I have no problem with it, be sure to tell Jeremiah and his wife that your mother and I send them our regards. Oh! You should take the World Cup tickets with you, as a thank you for arranging all of this.”

Lionel winked at her as she felt her eyebrow rise subtly, they hadn’t been to a World Cup together since she started school, Lena had assumed Lionel simply didn’t buy the tickets anymore.

“Thank you daddy,” she smiled when Lionel grinned and pulled her into a hug. She let herself inhale and relax into him as the comforting smell of cigars and those god-awful cinnamon hard candies Lionel loved filled her nose.

“Anything for you princess, now I gotta get back to work. Send me an owl to let me know you got there safely.”

*_*_*

 

The next morning Lena found herself in the arms of an overly excited blonde as she tried to take in her new surroundings.

The Danvers lived on a massive farm. The house in the middle of the wide swatches of land looked to be several stories and made out of a hodge podge of structural materials, the first floor seemed to made of brick, the next of wood, and so on and so forth. The entire building seemed to be leaning too far to the left but a couple of marble columns and a plethora of wooden beams sprouting from the ground seemed to keep it from caving in on itself.

Lena loved it.

When Kara caught her staring she felt a light blush dust her cheeks, but the blonde didn’t seem to notice.

“When Eliza and Jeremiah were first looking for a house after they got married, Eliza couldn’t decide on just one style, so Jeremiah just sort of combined the best aspects of all of them and voila, chez Danvers was born.”

Kara grabbed her hand and her luggage and dragged both of them to the house where Eliza was waiting in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on breakfast. Lena had to suppress a gasp, there was enough food to fill the Gryffindor table in the great hall and no one but her seemed fazed by it.

Eliza was a tall woman with a kind face and eyes filled with the same warmth that Kara’s held. She was using magic to stir various bowls and roll out dough for something that smelled _heavenly_ and Lena knew that if she was hungry Kara must be starving.

“Lena darling it’s lovely to finally put a face to your name! Kara has told us so much about yo-“

“HEY! Eliza, did you make any bacon?” Kara interrupted quickly, rushing to her mom to plant a kiss on her cheek and grab the plate she was holding out of her hands.

“No dear, would you like me to heat some up for you?” Eliza had a strange twinkle in her eye but turned back to the task at hand and shooed the girls out of the kitchen to finish everything up.

“Sorry about that,” Kara said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly as they made their way up the stairs to her room, “I’ve just been happy that your parents actually said yes! So I’ve probably been talking about it a lot but I’m just excited and-“

“Kara,” Lena breathed out with a laugh, “it’s alright everything has been amazing, I’m excited as well.”

Lena tried to commit to memory the way Kara floundered as she turned as red as the muggle shirt she was sporting.

“Sara should be here tomorrow and then Eliza will show us all the cool gross doctor-y things she gets to do every day. Although I’m a little nervous, she’s talked about some of the things she sees come through the hospital and it’s enough for me to lose my appetite.”

Lena laughed heartily, “Somehow I doubt that Kara.”

*_*_*

 

“This is _sick_!”

The three of them plus Alex were in an unoccupied waiting room reading through the labels of the medical potions and remedies that lined the shelves covering the back wall.

“You’re going to _get_ sick if you let any of that draught of toad tongues get on you Lance,” Alex admonished with a roll of her eyes and a hair flip.

“Don’t mind her, she’s just been extra bossy ever since she got her head girl letter,” Kara faux whispered to Sara conspiratorially and giggled when Alex rolled her eyes again.

“You got head girl? Congratulations Alex!” Lena said sweetly and Alex smiled back.

“You see? This is why Lena is my favorite.”

Kara rolled her eyes this time and Sara snickered as the sour look returned to Alex’s face.

“I don’t hold a lot of value in the title of ‘Alex’s favorite’,” Kara said challengingly putting her hands on her hips.

“We’ll see how much weight it holds when Lena is starting next year and you two are riding the bench.”

“Wait-no! Alex! Wait!”

*_*_*

 

The energy around the Danvers house was dialed up to an excited buzz as the girls got ready for the World Cup.

Lena felt her eyes nearly bug out of her head when Kara came bolting down the stairs in a bright green shirt not quite covering all of her stomach that read, “Kiss me I’m Irish.”

Lena’s own dark green Ireland jersey felt hot on her skin as a delighted smile overtook Kara’s features.

“I didn’t know you cheered for Ireland!” Kara sang teasingly. Lena flushed under the attention and missed Alex rolling her eyes.

“Great Lena I thought you would’ve been on our side, I thought you lived south of London?” Alex asked as she flattened her hands down her own red and white England jersey.

“I do, but I lived in Ireland for nearly four years before I was adopted by the Luthors. I thought the accent would have given it away.” Lena smirked at the pair of sisters standing in front of her laughing as Alex gave her a playful shove but stopping short when she saw the look Kara was giving her.

Before Lena could ask what was wrong Maggie and Sara came bounding down the stairs loudly.

Maggie was dressed to match Alex and her face was painted with red and white stripes.

Alex and Maggie had volunteered to be the acting chaperones, but they had only, finally, been let out of the house after a very strongly worded warning from Eliza.

_If any of you come home inebriated Alex Danvers you will leave your broom here this school year, Quidditch captain or not, that goes for you too Margaret Sawyer don’t think I didn’t see that laugh._

“Alright Luthor let’s get this show on the road!” Maggie cheered rubbing her hands together excitedly.

“Yeah let’s get this party started!”

Three pairs of eyes gave Sara an incredulous once over as she came bounding down the stairs to join the rest of the group covered from head to toe in maroon and black robes.

“Why are you wearing a Bulgarian jersey Lance?” Alex asked picking disgustedly at the maroon sleeve.

Sara scoffed and rolled her eyes, “C’mon guys, have you _seen_ Nyssa al Ghul? Of course I’m rooting for Bulgaria. But Alex and Maggie are right you two, Ireland will win the cup when Snape actually washes his hair.”

*_*_*

 

The port key they used dropped them off at the gates. With one look at Lena the crowds surrounding the entrances parted and soon the booth collecting the VIP tickets was right in front of them.

“Damn Lena, your dad hooked you up,” Sara said with wonder in her voice surveying the fields of tents and people zipping through the sky on brooms. Families were laughing and  cooking over fires and rowdy groups of teenagers, some of whom Lena recognized from school, were running around in packs, clearly less than sober and cheering loudly as players walked by.

“Luthors go big or don’t bother trying, there is no in between,” Lena said tersely handing over the tickets to a younger looking guy in a messenger cap and an Italian jersey for him to inspect.

“Enjoy the tournament Ms. Luthor,” he said cheerily waving them through the red rope and into the VIP box her father had reserved.

Lena felt an embarrassed flush heat her cheeks as she watched her friends mouths drop open at the expensive looking room draped in their respective team’s colors, but she felt some of the embarrassment at the display of wealth fade as she saw Kara try to hold herself back from the tables of food.

“You’re all more than welcome to help yourself to whatever is in here, I’m sure my parents paid more than enough for it, might as well not let it go to waste.”

The girls spread themselves out around the box, Lena and Sara fell into a pair of lush armchairs near the window and watched excitedly as Greece and Luxemburg took to the pitch to warm up for the first game.

“I didn’t think this much food came in these VIP boxes, I have really been missing out all these years,” Sara said moaning around a chicken wing.

Lena grinned sheepishly, “I may have requested an above average amount food. Ya know, because Kara eats a lot.”

Sara stared at her incredulously, “you’re so whipped its gross Lee.”

Kara joined them shortly with a massive trey of food perched in one hand and a green and white pom pom secured in the other.

“This is so exciting!” She nearly squealed as the Quaffle was launched into the air by the referee. The teams took off quickly leaving Lena feeling buzzed on a second hand adrenaline rush.

“I’m gonna go grab a drink, want anything Lena? You look a little thirsty.” Sara was giving her a shit eating grin and if Kara hadn’t been between the two of them Lena would have decked her in the arm.

“I’m good thanks,” she gritted out instead watching as Sara walked back toward the food table.

Lena’s eyes wandered to the other side of the booth and observed the two upcoming seventh years curiously. Now that they were alone Alex and Maggie looked awkward, Lena could almost feel the tension between the two of them as the stumbled through a stilted conversation that she couldn’t quite make out.

“They’ve been weird like that for ages,” Lena turned back to face Kara as she spoke who was looking where Lena had been moments ago.

“I think it’s because Eliza doesn’t know? I don’t know Alex refuses to talk about it. But this is the first time Maggie has been around all summer which is weird because normally she practically lives with us.”

Kara looked uneasy observing her sister and Lena couldn’t blame her. She was worried about the eldest Danvers and she wasn’t even related to her, she couldn’t imagine how Kara felt, especially given how miserable Alex looked.

Suddenly a rogue thought popped into Lena’s head.

“Why did you look at me so strangely when I mentioned being adopted?” Lena didn’t know if she wanted to hear the answer. Maybe Kara was just glad that she didn’t actually have any Luthor blood running through her.

“Oh! I just didn’t realize that you were adopted too,” Kara said easily around a mouthful of sandwich.

“Too?”

“Yeah,” Kara swallowed before speaking this time, “A few years ago my parents well, they uh- passed away in a fire, sort of, and my cousin, well, he was _supposed_ to be my legal guardian but he was young just graduated actually so uh, the Danvers took me in and I’ve been with them ever since.”

Lena swallowed heavily as Kara glanced back over to Alex with a small sad smile on her face.

“I had no idea,” she said quietly, she covered Kara’s hand with her own and felt butterflies when the blonde looked back up and gave her a hundred watt smile.

“How would you have known? I didn’t tell you,” Lena huffed out a laugh, “Besides, the Danvers are amazing, I’m lucky I got to be a part of their family, even if I didn’t see it that way at first.”

Lena nodded but couldn’t find herself able to relate to Kara’s words at all.

“Wait, is that why you’re rooting for Ireland? Is that where you lived before you moved in with the Danvers?”

Kara seemed to pale at the question and quickly stuffed part of a chocolate tart in her mouth and mumbled something unintelligible.

“What was that?” Lena asked laughing as Kara attempted to swallow around a dry throat.

“I said I’m from a really small obscure place, you’ve probably never heard of it,”

Lena lifted an eyebrow, “Try me.”

Kara didn’t seem to anticipate her answer and she floundered once more and her eyes flitted around the room avoiding looking at Lena.

“Uh-F-France.”

“France.”

“Um-hm yep I’m French.”

“And France is too obscure for me to know about because..?”

Lena knew Kara wasn’t giving her the whole truth and if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t all that bothered by it. She was used to half-truths and lies growing up with a politically involved family and Lena knew that Kara held no malice with her words or in this case lack thereof. She would give her time to tell her the whole story on her own terms.

After a few more minutes of useless stuttering Lena gave Kara a teasing smile that practically read _this is a get out of jail free card_ , and the two turned back to the game and watched in silence as the teams continued flying gracefully around the stadium.

*_*_*

 

“I can’t believe they actually did it,” Alex lamented as she passed Lena 2 galleons and Kara continued to wave her pom pom in Maggie’s face.

“I told you this was our year!” Kara said joyously as the group walked back to the tent that the Luthors had provided for the girls.

“Ok but did you see what I meant when I was talking about Nyssa? God she’s so fucking attractive. I wonder if I could find her and get her to sign my jersey? Ooh or maybe she could sign my t-“

“Okay everyone!” Alex said quickly cutting Sara off leaving the blonde scowling in the older girl’s direction, “This is us, the port key is all ready for us back at the exiting station, so we can leave now if we wanted to but I kind of want to see how swanked out this tent is gonna be so let’s party!”

The girls walked into the giant green canvas tent and Lena rolled her eyes, she had forgotten just how over the top everything was.

There was a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling and fur carpets and expensive trinkets draped over nearly every surface.

“Remember mom said no alcohol so if you’re going to drink please, for the love of god, don’t let me catch you doing it.”

Alex and Maggie walked off into one of the back rooms leaving the three third years alone in the living room. Sara flopped back onto the biggest couch and giggled as she pulled Lena down with her. Kara slunk into an armchair by the fire and let out a kitten sized yawn.

“It’s late,” Lena said around her own yawn while letting her head fall back onto Sara’s shoulder. “We should probably head to bed.”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep at all with all the partying the Irish seem to be doing,” Sara said with a jolting nudge to Lena’s ribs causing her to startle off of the couch.

“That’s not partying,” Alex said seriously as she strode quickly back out of the room with a panicked looking Maggie in tow behind her, “C’mon we have to leave now, everyone grab a hand and no matter what, do not let go.”

Lena could feel her anxiety building as Alex tugged them all out of the tent quickly and she gasped aloud when she was met with the sights of hundreds of blazing fires. People were screaming and Lena couldn’t make out anything anyone was saying, all she wanted to do was hold her hands over her ears but she tightened her grip on Kara and Sara and walked forward briskly toward what she knew was the exiting station.

They were about 20 yards away when she saw them. A squadron of people in masks and body armor were sending spells flying around the field. Lena felt sick to her stomach when she saw the flashes of green land squarely on civilians that she knew weren’t going to get back up.

As they came closer she could make out the logo of the snake curled into a scripted L and her blood curdled. Lex’s followers.

Lena stood frozen as Sara tried to drag her toward the port key but she couldn’t move, she couldn’t hear, she couldn’t _breathe_. When she saw one of the masked men raise a wand toward Kara though, everything came rushing back and she saw red.

_“Expelliarmus!”_

She didn’t know when she had dropped the hands next to her to reach for her wand but she was now engaged in a duel with a hulking beast of a man with broad shoulders and a mask that barely fit his massive skull.

“You stupid little bitch, I’ll kill you!”

Lena blocked all of the curses he threw her way, he may have been large but he was slow and predictable and Lena had him knocked out cold before she could process what happened.

“Lena!”

She saw a flash of green out of the corner of her eye and she turned slowly, time seemed to slow down, everything sounded like it was under water. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting images of blonde hair and sweet smiles flash before her eyes one last time.

Until all of a sudden that same blonde hair was obscuring her vision and the largest purple force field Lena had ever seen was projecting out of the end of her wand. The spells the masked madmen were sending their way were bouncing harmlessly off of it, _how had Kara managed to conjure a protego shield that strong?_

Lena shook her head and stunned their attacker. With a bright red flash he was on the ground, his mask rolling off to join his wand.

_Maxwell?_

Lena could have sworn in that moment it was him but she wasn’t about to dwell, not when their lives were on the line. _We have to get out of here._

She turned back and grabbed her friends’ hands pulling them forcefully to the garden gnome that would lead them back to the Danvers farm. She did a quick head count, they were steps before the ceramic lawn ornament, _Alex, Maggie, Kara, Sara_. Check.

Lena turned back one more time trying to land another glimpse of the wizard lying on the ground but flames obscured her vision as her hand wrapped around the pointed red hat, sending them all hurtling off into the nothingness.

*_*_*

 

Lena hadn’t realized she was crying until Eliza was wiping the tears from her face with her gentle hands as they all sat in the living room recounting the horrors they had witnessed at the tournament to Kara’s parents.

Jeremiah had sped off, paged by the ministry to help with damage control from the tragedy that had occurred only hours ago. Lena hated the way Kara’s jaw tightened when he left, hated knowing that her family was putting the blonde’s own loved ones in danger.

Lena felt like she was in a trance, barely registering the words being spoken by Alex and Maggie as Sara and Kara sat on either side of Lena wordlessly rubbing her shoulders and holding tight to her hands.

“They had the crest on their sleeves mom, they did this for him.”

Lena’s eyes snapped up for the first time since arriving home and all eyes gravitated toward her worriedly.

“I think I would like to go to bed now if that’s ok.” She didn’t recognize her own voice. It was strained and gruff, cold in a way she had only ever heard out of Lillian, but she was too tired to be startled by it.

Kara and Sara furrowed their eyebrows as they lead her up the staircase to the brightly painted bedroom where they had been laughing and talking about school only hours before it felt like a life time had passed as she gripped the brass knob shakily and nudged her way in. She stripped out of her robes, not caring if either of the girls saw her. She would probably regret the decision come morning, she was normally more careful to keep prying eyes off of the spaces that were just a little too hollow between her ribs but her brain didn’t seem to be allowing her to think of anything beyond Lex.

She could hear a gulp as turned to throw her robes onto her trunk but, couldn’t tell who it belonged to. She pulled a t shirt over her head and stood in the middle of the room hopelessly lost and not knowing what to do with herself.

“I-I can’t,” she tried to breath but it felt like someone was holding it back, pulling the air back deep inside of her and leaving her gasping as her knees shook and threatened to give out.

“C’mon babe let’s get you to bed,” Lena vaguely registered Sara’s strong hands guide her toward Kara’s bed. She laid her down gently, tucking the covers over her still shivering body and up around her chin, Lena gripped tightly Sara’s hand as she tried to walk away from the bed.

“I can’t I need, I need-“

Sara rubbed soothing circles on her shoulder and shushed her gently, turning to Kara.

“Can you stay with her? I think I’m gonna go try to call my dad and see if there’s anything I can do to help, ya know with him being an auror and all maybe I can get some more information.”

Kara nodded without meeting Sara’s eyes and slipped off her shoes and out of her pants as well. She slipped into bed behind a still skittish Lena and gently tucked the shorter girl into her chest.

Lena finally let the tears fall freely and the sobs wrack her body as she gripped the front of Kara’s shamrock green shirt. She had heard stories, read all of the articles the news had put out, but tonight she had been forced to witness death in the name of her brother.

In her name.

She cried for what felt like hours but she couldn’t be sure. Kara held her tightly the whole time, whispering unintelligible lullabies in her ears until her tears ran dry and her eyelids began to droop dangerously low.

“I’m sorry for all of this,” she whispered after it had been silent for a while, she didn’t even know if Kara was still awake.

“Please don’t be,” came the equally soft response. A hand tangled gently in her hair and scratched soothingly from her scalp to the nape of her neck and Lena drooped further into Kara’s chest.

“Will you be here when I wake up?” her words were slurring now and she felt the warm breath of a chuckle ghost softly across her forehead.

“Always Lena. Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and it all goes down hill from here ;-) the L in L-Corp stands for life is rough


End file.
